ID: Doubling Down On Unwelcomeness

The West Ada School District administration (the largest in Idaho) has just flunked an important quiz, pulling failing grades in student support as well as PR management.

Here's the quiz.

Assume you are a district that recently told a teacher to take down an "Everyone is welcome here" sign that shows the message with hands of various tones. Your explanation is that it's "not neutral" to suggest that students of all races are welcome. The teacher goes national, drawing all sorts of attention to you district, and the country is wondering if "Some students are unwelcome here" is an official district policy.

There are protests and letters to the editor, and over the weekend, 400 or so people turn out to put "everyone is welcome here" messages in chalk all over the sidewalks and parking lots of your district.

Do you--

A) Go public with a statement explaining that this is all just a big understanding because of course in your district everyone is welcome and the whole things is just a communication mix-up.

B) Send an administrator or two out for a photo op with one of the chalk drawings and maybe a student or two, throw in a big smile and a thumbs up to explain that of course your district endorses this message and celebration of the diversity that makes this country great.

C) Hide like a coward in your office and hope that this just blows over before some MAGA goons turn you in to the DEI police for not firing the teacher immediately.

D) Send a message to your building administrators telling them to get the "vandalism" washed away ASAP.

West Ada admins chose D. They offered as an excuse that they didn't want students tracking the chalk dust into the building, and every school in the country that ever put chalk messages on the sidewalk for the first day of school or Big Test Day responds "Cough bullshit cough." At least one West Ada student told a reporter, "They chalk all the time for student welcomes and IB exams, but they don't power wash messages off then." Which would be the least surprising thing about this whole story.

I don't know the West Ada administrators, so maybe they are not actively trying to promote a policy of "Everyone is definitely not welcome here, dammit." Knowing school administrations, it strikes me as equally likely that this is more "How dare you defy my directive, and double-damn you for making me look stupid while doing it." Maybe they're just frustrated authoritarians; there's nothing authoritarians hate worse than people who don't properly follow orders. 

Nevertheless, I hope West Ada continues to draw attention. This is what anti-diversity, anti-equity, anti-inclusion looks like-- active suppression of any attempt to express welcome or support for people who are at all different. That's a stunningly inappropriate policy for any public school district in this country to implement, even if it's what the federal regime supports. For any district to suggest that some young people are not welcome, or to buckle to other people who want the district to take that position, is unconscionable and a betrayal of what we hope public education can be.

Thanks to Mike Simpson for the image