It won’t really stop a racist bigoted school board but it will give allied teachers and the LGBTQ+ students some cover and breathing room. Notice they knew they needed more sensitivity training after a teacher came to work in black face. Plus there was this from the students. Earlier this month, the Newberg Graphic discovered that at least one student at Newberg High School was involved in a Snapchat group called “Slave Trade,” where teenagers from across the country share racist, homophobic and violent messages, sometimes specifically targeting Black students.
They knew they had an issue with racism and attacks on gay, lesbian, and trans kids. But they still wanted to take away any training or discussions to promote tolerance, acceptance, and diversity. This is the republican party today. This is the maga cult trying their best to roll back all the civil rights gains. If you go to the link on the superintendent you will see that the board want only cis white Christian symbols and accepted speech. … (T)he conservative board members fired Morelock because he didn’t aggressively implement their ban on controversial symbols, … is from that link. These people can not accept the changes in society and refuse to accept the advancing better understanding of biology and psychology than was known in the 1950s. Hugs
Police are investigating after a masked person approached the home of Newberg School District employee, lit the employee’s Pride flag on fire and performed a Nazi salute on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. File photo
Just weeks after a Yamhill County judge ruled a controversial ban on the display of Pride flags in Newberg schools was unconstitutional, a masked person approached the home of school district employee, lit the employee’s Pride flag on fire and performed a Nazi salute.
A home security camera captured the flag burning on film, and a 14-second video clip posted to Twitter Monday had 123,000 views by Thursday morning.
The family filed a police report with the Newberg-Dundee Police Department, telling investigators their Pride flag had previously been stolen. Monday’s flames left black soot damage to the brick siding of the home, police said.
No arrests have yet been made, according to Newberg police.
In a statement Tuesday, the Newberg School District referred to the flag-burning as a hate crime.
“We are shocked and saddened to hear that such a horrendous act took place in our community,” the statement said. “The act of invading someone’s private property to burn a flag is abhorrent and alarming.”
The video shows a person walking up a driveway toward a house with their face fully covered, except for their eyes. After lighting the flag on fire, the person is shown facing the security camera and performing a Nazi salute before walking out of sight.
According to the Twitter account that shared the video, the flag-burning occurred at 3:15 a.m. Flames had spread onto leaves around the flag by the time the homeowner went outside, the account said.
The flag-burning arrives a little over a year after a controversial policy banning the display of Pride and Black Lives Matter flags in district schools threw Newberg into the national spotlight.
Newberg’s school board voted in September 2021 to adopt a policy barring educators from displaying symbols considered “political, quasi-political or controversial.” The 4-3 vote followed a pair of racist incidents in district schools and drew fierce criticism from state lawmakers and members of the Newberg teacher’s union. After enacting the policy, board members abruptly fired former superintendent Joe Morelock.
Dundee Elementary School teacher Chelsea Shotts sued the school district and four of its board members in December 2021 after a rainbow flag she kept in her classroom window was the subject of a complaint under the policy.
A Yamhill County judge ruled on Sept. 22 that the policy banning the display of certain symbols in schools was unconstitutional and forbade the district from enforcing it.
— Catalina Gaitán; cgaitan@oregonian.com; @catalinagaitan_
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