Oregon School District To Vote On Displaying Black Lives Matter and “Progressive Pride” Flags In Every Classroom and Location
In the Gresham-Barlow School District students “will also receive instruction on native land acknowledgements and have the opportunity to recite it at least once each week. Students shall learn the United States national anthem and the Black national anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
The Gresham-Barlow School District (GBSD) in Oregon will vote on whether to change its flag display policy on May 27, pending legal review by the Oregon School Boards Association. If approved, all schools in this district in a suburb of Portland could display a Black Lives Matter (BLM) flag and a Progressive Pride flag, on school grounds and in all classrooms, along with the statutorily required American flag, Oregon flag, and POW/MIA flag.
In addition to the flags, the GBSD board will vote on whether to expand its policies to give all students the time to recite a land declaration and sing the Black National Anthem, adding to state statute that requires schools to provide a weekly opportunity to recite the pledge of allegiance and learning the national anthem. It also voted to use an “equity lens” when naming or renaming facilities.
Many know the BLM flag and the radical organization it stands for. For those unfamiliar with the Progressive Pride flag, it’s not merely a statement of political support, as the name implies. It’s an updated LGBTQ+ flag that includes several new stripes supporting trans people, those transitioning or non-binary, people of color, and those afflicted with AIDS. A Portland artist used Kickstarter to raise funds for his redesign of the familiar rainbow flag to include more stripes for more marginalized people. He described his intentions by saying,
Background: LGBTQ 6 full sized color stripes representing life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), harmony/peace (blue), and spirit (purple/violet)
Hoist: 5 half sized stripes representing trans individuals (light blue, light pink, white), marginalized POC communities (brown, black), as well as those living with AIDS, those no longer living, and the stigma surrounding them (black).
The news of the policy changes came as a surprise to many parents. One shared a letter on social media that her child brought home, detailing the changes.
The old policy, adopted in 2002 and updated in 2014, reads:
A United States flag and an Oregon flag shall be displayed on or near each school building under the control of the Board or used by the district, during school hours, except in unsuitable weather and at other times the Board deems proper.
The district shall obtain and display a United States flag of an appropriate size for each classroom.
Students shall receive instruction in respect for the national flag, and be provided an opportunity to salute the United States flag at least once each week by reciting The Pledge of Allegiance.
A flag salute may be implemented at assemblies, before or after school, at lunch, special events, home room class, athletic contests or at other times deemed appropriate by the principal. Individual staff members and students who do not participate in the salute must maintain a respectful silence during the salute.
The new policy states (changes underlined):
A United States flag, and an Oregon flag, a National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag, a progressive pride flag, and a Black Lives Matter flag shall be displayed on or near each school building under the control of the Board or used by the district, during school hours, except in unsuitable weather and at other times the Board deems proper.
The district shall obtain and display a United States flag, an Oregon flag, a National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag, a progressive pride flag, and a Black Lives Matter flag of an appropriate size for each classroom.
Students shall receive instruction in respect for the national flag, and be provided an opportunity to salute the United States flag at least once each week by reciting The Pledge of Allegiance. They will also receive instruction on native land acknowledgements and have the opportunity to recite it at least once each week. Students shall learn the United States national anthem and the Black national anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing.
A flag salute may be implemented at assemblies, before or after school, at lunch, special events, home room class, athletic contests or at other times deemed appropriate by the principal. Individual staff members and students who do not participate in the salute must maintain a respectful silence during the salute.
Land acknowledgements are statements that work to undo American colonialism by stating that the organization knows it is on land or territory previously claimed by Native Americans, and in some cases states explicitly that the land was illegitimately acquired or stolen from tribes that previously occupied the land.
The new facility naming policy reads (changes underlined):
The Board shall be responsible for naming any building, site or other facility which is the property of the district.
In considering names for facilities, the board will use an equity framework and give preference will be given to names associated with the community. Names of historical persons, places and events may be considered. Names of living persons will not be considered.
Pursuant to OAR 581.021.0047, facilities will not use names associated with or significant to a Native American Tribe unless the school district enters into an approved written agreements with that federally recognized Native American Tribe in Oregon.
Recommendations from parent groups, students and residents of the district will be considered.
The superintendent will, upon request of the Board, prepare a list of possible names for new facilities. The Board may establish a committee for screening, reviewing and suggesting names.
The proposal awaits review by the Oregon School Boards Association and a final vote by and a final vote by a GBSD work committee. The ODE previously opined that BLM does not violate the Hatch Act because it does not represent a political viewpoint. An organization called Liberty in Education responded:
The ODE Black Lives Matter Resolution states:
WHEREAS, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel issued an advisory opinion that it is not a violation of the Hatch Act for federal employees to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black Lives Matter Global Network while on duty, including wearing or displaying materials related to the cause, because they address issues such as racism, which are not inherently aligned with a single political party and do not meet any criteria for a “partisan political group”.
If the statement “Black Lives Matter” is nonpartisan and teachers are supported in wearing BLM gear, are they also supported in wearing other slogans such as “Blue Lives Matter” or “All Lives Matter”? If BLM is a statement not representing a political agenda, then other slogans should also be acceptable. However, in ODE’s “Training Toolkit” released with the Resolution, a teacher discusses how she handled a student saying “All Lives Matter” in one of the virtual classrooms. The student then wrote an apology letter.
These new policies represent a radical shift that may come to more Portland-area school districts.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that the vote is pending on May 27.
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Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds, and on Gab at @RealJeffReynolds.
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Comments
“Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.”.
The hell with that – this is a Jew-hating organization of Brownshirts. And it’s becoming a government actor.
Let’s call these people – and the people who support them, like Jeff Bezos and the like – what they are:
BLM Founder Says “Revolution” Will Not Be Through Ballot Box, Calls U.S. Flag “Symbol of Hate”:
https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/blm-founder-infiltration-flag-revolution/
Flag etiquette will open all sorts of possibilities for rebellion. Displaying upside-down for a start.
I could see that. Create a display of America’s political organizations, with each Organization’s Name, it’s Flag, and a brief description, all on 3×5 cards. The BLM flag gets it’s anthem instead of a description on the card. Announce to the students that if they are interested in learning the anthem, there it is. Letter of the Law met.
Wait, what? I see what you did there. As for symbols, I still believe that a rainbow is God frowning, just sayin. We have lots of rainbows, real and symbolic, here. At the current rate, future flags are going to resemble a Jackson Pollock, and I am sure someone will still feel excluded.
If you apply reductionism to intersectionality, you get individuality.
2021 is on course to outsuck 2020… I didn’t think that would be possible.
BTW
TY Mr. Reynolds, I do enjoy your posts, even though some are downright painful…
Thanks … believe me, the research and the writing is more painful.
This policy is going to be chaotic at best. If ‘respectful silence’ simply means being quiet then it’s ok to kneel during the Pledge. Of course that would mean it’s likewise ok to turn away from any other flag or simply leave the area while another flag is ‘honored’.
This is opening up lots of avenues for lawsuits. Unequal application of punishment, failure to protect students from retaliation if they choose not to honor a particular flag. Do these school boards ever listen to their attorneys?
attorneys? We don’t need no steekin attorneys.😁
Yeah ….seems like it for now. Let’s see what happens when the lawsuits begin for say unequal application of disciplinary action for the response to one flag v another.
This is going to generate lots of income for attorneys up there.
It might generate attorney revenue, but it won’t ever stop the issue. The judicial system has bought into the Progressive religion.
Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s wait and see if the foreseeable consequences appear and if the district can successfully defend those consequences. IMO, they are setting up a series of slam dunk lawsuits, but I am certainly willing to wait and see.
If a choice between the lawsuits and the military, take the military. Our military is being turned against us. Our ‘lawsuits’ will eventually be bird cage liner.
Fine,
Hyperbolic as usual. I can always count on consistency from you.
This is a damn school board policy, not a military issue. I don’t see Jack booted thugs marching across the horizon. This boogie man doesn’t exist.
Where do think the overwhelming majority of the military is recruited from? It ain’t Berkley CA. Its rural and exurban areas. With emphasis upon those from military families.
Believe me the folks in the military who disagree with the ‘flavor of the day’ in terms of policy know how to keep their heads down and make the important things happen while ignoring the nonsense. The political BS in the Pentagon is just that for 90% of the military; BS in the Pentagon.
This is especially true for the Guard and Reserve who literally don’t have time for Pentagon BS political policies. Not to mention millions of combat veterans, who really, really don’t like the political BS.
We are in no immediate danger of a woke military turning on the citizens.
“We are in no immediate danger of a woke military turning on the citizens.”
It already has, along with the FBI, DOJ, and CIA.
Barry,
The equivalent of HR flavor of the month BS being pushed isn’t evidence of that.
If you really believe the entirety of the federal government and all it’s personnel are aligned against you then, IMO you shouldn’t spend time posting.
Instead you should be stocking your redoubt with beans and bullets, improving your fields of fire, stacking sandbags and covering your tracks real and digital.
have never heard the “black national anthem” and will never listen to it/learn it for any reason–here in our part of the world, the ONLY ensign that may fly above or at the same height as the lonestar is the stars and stripes–will never honor/bow/recite some nonsense to “honor/respect” some other flag–never–further, do not and will not pressure/demand/require anyone(particularly children)to the same–this is the United States not some third-world shythole
I first heard the anthem during a black history month event when I worked for the federal government in the 1970’s.
I meant to include a reminder in the article, but it slipped my mind – the first many people heard of the Black National Anthem was when the NFL decided to have it performed before every game last year.
Seriously? Oregon’s K-12 rank for education is #40 out of 50 states maybe they should spend more time on actually teaching the kids rather than trying to turn them all into communists. I can’t imagine parents are going to be ok with this . The public school teachers in Oregon are 89.3% white and the students are 67.% white ( I double checked) so who’s behind this indoctrination?
89.3% white
67.% white
so who’s behind this indoctrination?
You’ve already answered it: white people. Specifically white progressives signaling their virtue for the underclasses and the ‘oppressed’.
When did Oregon rise to #40? Last ranking I saw was #47.
Sadly, “parents are going to ok with this” as long as it’s free and keeps their kids out of their hair.
Black national anthem? Black ain’t no country I ever heard of. Where is it? Point to it on the map.
The Black Supremacy flag is divisive. It represents a moratorium on all things connected to the White race, including traditionalism, patriotism, self-reliance, property, merit, and all Western thought. The very idea of flying it beside the American flag is an utter joke.
So each classroom will now have to display five flags.
The extra flags are an unfunded mandate.
Why not just a flag of surrender??
Because that would be redundant.
A bit of history. North Portland used to be where the blacks mostly lived along the I-5 corridor and around, I kid you not, Killingsworth. But then some white people decided that it was a cool old neighborhood with nice 1910-1940 era houses ripe for gentrification. So while the blacks still lived there, they announced that they were going to help the blacks by building a modern light rail transport system. So for 5 years the blacks endured Interstate Avenue being torn up, and as soon as it was finished, came the evictions as all the rentals were sold to speculators or renovated. Similarly, all of the local stores were replaced by mochahuts and Whole Paychecks and our own local chain, New Seasons, whose stores feature giant BLM signs with “we will do better” even though I have never seen a black person shopping in one, because I guess $4 apples aren’t their thing. There was a hue and a cry but hey, its just business. We are sorry that you can no longer live here because some millenials decided that it was just too convenient for them. And where did those displaced, “economically relocated,” blacks go? Why, East County, aka the Gresham Barlow school district, which was formerly where the majority of blue collar white people lived. I think they all decided to move to Clackamas County or across the river to Vantucky. The beauty of the Portland system is that all of the politicians who start it are out of office before the unintended consequences kick in, or are at least finally noticed. The current politicians say “it was the guys before us who caused the problem,” even though they are currently setting up the same thing in some other neighborhood. Portland is very adept at practicing economic racism. Show me a current “no go” location and I will show you the future hotspot, once they get rid of “the wrong kind of people.”
If 20 years someone had said that this would happen out in Gresham they would have been locked up in the looney bin. But then, I commented 25 years ago that Portland was so nice even the liberals couldn’t screw it up. I certainly underestimated their toxicity.
Because it’s white, and that would be Supremacist.
/intersectional logic pretzel
They forgot to add a mandatory pledge of allegiance to the DNC.
Maybe next year.
Interesting combination: diversity (i.e .color judgment); lions, lionesses, and their [unPlanned] cubs; and one step forward, two steps backward.
“the Black national anthem”
What black nation would that be? Uganda? Nigeria? Ghana? Rwanda?
There is no such thing as a black national anthem. It’s a euphemism for “a song we like better.” One day someone called a song they liked better “the black national anthem” and all the next day everybody was calling it that.
What black nation would that be? Uganda? Nigeria? Ghana? Rwanda?
_________________________________________________________
exactly
ran a ford store for a retired marine ltc–wonderful guy–not a texan but a jayhawker–regardless, a stickler for ceremony and doing things the right way–came to work one day and he went into his office and immediately summoned me and the rest of our mgmnt staff to his office, then over the pa summoned our entire porter/make-ready staff(14 guys if remember)–he’s got 22 or 23 people in his office–we’re all silent–he stands up and says “come with me ”
we follow him out to the front of the dealership and, once we’re all sort of grouped around him, he points to our two 80′ flagpoles at the entrance–the lone star is flying on one side of the drive and the stars and stripes on the other side–the lone star is flying about 3 or 4 feet higher up than the star and stripes–he points to the flags and says “gentlemen, we don’t fly ANYTHING above the stars and stripes in these united states–ever. is that clear? don’t ever dishonor me or our store again by doing something so disrespectful–is that understood?”–it damn sure was–he turned around and walked back into the building–we corrected the situation immediately, never asking who was responsible, pointing fingers, etc.
he was a decorated nam vet in addition to being a helluva fine man–when a man like him speaks to you about honor and respect, you listen
East St. Llouus.
Why not also throw in a hammer and sickle red flag too and add to the colors?
Because both of those symbols imply physical labor, and we can’t have that.
Why is it the regime never mentions the people that have died because of the left’s alternate realist? Yes, Buy Large Mansons have gotten people killed.
“Life Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes called the Black National Anthem:
Obviously a bunch of Marxists.
https://youtu.be/i30SdcfEpSE?t=51
“Obviously a bunch of Marxists.”
Yes, every damn one. Just like you.
Whatever. They don’t get to choose their own “national anthem” any more than I get to choose my own traffic laws.
henrybowman: They don’t get to choose their own “national anthem”
It’s an informal designation, and sure they do. They can call the hymn whatever they want.
Next thing you know, snowflakes will complain about Janet Jackson declaring a Rhythm Nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAwaNWGLM0c
No one gives a damn about your pathetic attempts to shove marxism down our throats.
It is child abuse to send children to any school in this school district.
Did the Nazis have a flag in every classroom, too?