Monongalia County Board of Education image.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Monongalia County Board of Education will no longer debate the pride flag, or any flag issue despite a call from the West Virginia ACLU to return the flags as a free speech issue.
In a letter to Superintendent Eddie Campbell ACLU Staff Attorney Nicholas Ward said,” Ordering faculty to remove LGBTQ+ Pride and Black Lives Matter displays violates the right of free expression that all citizens enjoy under the U.S. Constitution.”
Monongalia County Board of Education President Ron Lytle said they have debated the issue and by a 3-2 vote have decided to delete the issue from future agendas.
“We’ve looked at it and we’ve talked about it and we decided you can’t really pick any flag,” Lytle said. “If you put one up where do you stop, where is that line?”
Lytle said the issue is becoming a distraction to mission of educating students. He said the faculty and staff are focused on helping students that report bullying or harassment.
“We’re not going to have anymore discussion about flags as a school board and we’re going to do whatever we need to do to make the kids in the classrooms feel safe and put our focus back on the education process,” Lytle said.
Supporters have protested at the Monongalia School offices in Sabraton and have packed school board meeting to make their feelings known. Students have walked out of classes in protest of the decision, but Lytle said from now forward only two flags will be allowed in Monongalia County school buildings.
“As a school system we’re moving forward without any flags in any of our classrooms besides the American Flag and the state flag,” Lytle said.
Lytle has asked for data regarding reports of bullying and said staff has not reported an increase to date. For now, that’s the only method to accumulate information due to continued problems with the state record management system.
“The WVEIS System (West Virginia Education Information System), which is a state-run system does not provide us with the data we usually get,” Lytle said. “So, the quantification of data through the school system through a fault at the state level is keeping us from seeing that information.”