A group of Auburn, Alabama students and parents are petitioning an Auburn High School teacher to take down a gay pride flag posted in the classroom.
In a letter addressed to the principal, the students and parents wrote, “The flag creates a hostile and provocative learning environment for students not comfortable openly supporting the LGBTQ Community.”
Addressing the political nature of the flag, the letter continued, “It’s unprofessional for the teachers to openly display their political views in an unbiased and socially neutral public setting– creating a hostile and uncomfortable learning environment.”
A counterpetition has also been started by students on who supoort the LGBT flad.
Auburn City Schools School Superintendent Dr. Karen DeLano said in a statement, “It has been brought to the attention of Auburn City Schools and Auburn High School that a petition from a group of anonymous students and parents was sent to Dr. Shannon Pignato, the principal of Auburn High School. As of noon, she had not been presented with that petition. She is aware of the situation though and is working with staff and students to address those concerns.”
Superintendent DeLano’s position was further clarified by another statement. “As a school system, we are obliged to enforce federal and state regulations and laws, and we do have freedom of speech. We are looking at this matter from all aspects and would hope that everybody would handle this in a manner that we can deal with it in a way that we can move on and have orderly classroom learning going on.”
It looks like the school administrators have no intention of taking down the LGBT flag any time soon.
Source:
