School Removes 'Everyone Is Welcome' Poster: What We Know
- News Glance
- 25 thg 3, 2025
- 4 phút đọc
In January, a teacher in Idaho was told to take down an "Everyone is Welcome Here" poster in her classroom. She refused.
Sarah Inama, who has taught at Lewis and Clark Middle School in Meridian for five years, told TODAY.com: "There are only two opinions on this sign: Everyone is welcome here or not everyone is welcome here."
The move from her school district comes as President Donald Trump has threatened funding for schools with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, including teaching about racism or LGBTQ+ rights, after a 2021 state law banning "critical race theory" in classrooms.
Newsweek contacted the West Ada School District via its website for comment.
What Happened?
The school's principal and vice principal went to her classroom in January and asked her to take down the posters because they were "controversial."
According to TODAY.com, the principal cited school district policy and said Inama should display only "content-neutral" posters in her classroom.
Inama told MSNBC that nobody had complained about the posters, but they wanted her to take them down in case someone did. Inama found this to be "so confusing," as she did not understand what could be "controversial" about posters that say people are welcome in her classroom.
She told TODAY.com: "Since the sign is emphasizing that everyone, in regards to race or skin tone, is welcome here no matter what, immediately, I was like, the only other view of this is racist. And I said, 'That sounds like racism to me.'"
The sixth-grade world civilization teacher initially took down the posters, but after thinking about them over the weekend, decided to put them back up.
Now, Inama is in a legal stand-off with the school district, which said she has until the end of the year to find an alternative poster that complies with the policy.
Why Did The School Ban The Poster?
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The district said the poster violates its policy on what is allowed to be displayed in a classroom.
The 0401.20 policy on District Owned Physical Property states: "School property shall not be used by personnel for the advancement of individual beliefs. It is the desire of the District that the physical environment of District facilities be content neutral, conducive to a positive learning environment and not a distraction to the educational environment."
Inama does not see how a poster welcoming people into her classroom and another poster saying people are respected at school violate the condition of neutrality. They said she could purchase other posters that do not have the same message.
She has said her posters count as "motivational posters," which are permitted under the district guidelines.
West Ada School District's chief academic officer, Marcus Myers, countered this, saying, per Inama's recount to TODAY.com, that the school should follow the political environment. According to Inama, he said: "What might be controversial now might not have been controversial three, six, nine months ago, and we have to follow that."
MSNBC's All in with Chris Hayes showed a clip of Myers being interviewed on The Ranch Podcast,where he said the issue with the poster was not the message but that it displayed hands belonging to children of different races.
Inama reiterated the political point on MSNBC, saying that her school administrators told her the posters were seen as "an opinion" in this political climate. She added she was told that not everybody believes "everyone is welcome here," making her poster a personal opinion.
She called this attitude "so gross," and emphasized that she cannot understand how someone could oppose a sign that stresses that people are welcome here.
"Everywhere you look, ordinary citizens are out there on their own," Hayes said. "In demonstrations, in council meetings, expressing their fear and their anger and their hope for this country, and wondering where their leaders are."
Hayes said later in the program: "I think we need people to show the courage, not just of these [town hall] protesters, but the bravery of Sarah Inama, an Idaho schoolteacher who is risking so much to stand for what's right."
How Idaho Is Reacting?
Inama told TODAY.com and KIVI-TV that she has received letters from hundreds of people, ranging from teachers within her own district to people all over the world who agree with her message.
She has also been given friendship bracelets from her students with beads that spell out "everyone is welcome here" and "equality."
Outside of school doors, a local T-shirt printing press has been busy printing and shipping more than 8,000 T-shirts that read "Everyone is Welcome Here."
Brigade Screen Printing in Boise has been shipping T-shirts as far as Vermont but is also printing them for a social campaign run by local students and parents, who plan to wear the shirts on their first day back at school after spring break.
One parent, Nikki, told KIVI: "I'm not offended by that sign whatsoever. I think it's important for the kids to know that everyone is welcome here."
"The goal is just to get everyone to wear one on Monday the 24th. One sign comes down, tens and thousands of signs go up to replace it," said another parent, Chris Stewart. "I don't think there's any way we can say who we are as a community, [other] than a strong message like that."
What Happens Next
On Monday, students and parents are prepared to show up to school in their "Everyone is Welcome Here" shirts in support of Inama and in protest of the district's policy.
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