Stoughton High senior leads growing movement to restore Pride flags in town schools

A crowd of protesters gathered outside the Stoughton School Committee meeting Tuesday night to oppose a policy banning the display of “political” items in classrooms, including LGBTQ+ Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.

Leading them was Olivia Tran, a Stoughton High School senior who was suspended for a half-day last week after walking out of class in protest, according to The Boston Globe. 

“These flags do not discriminate against anyone. They do not hurt anyone. So why are they controversial?” Tran asked the committee, according to the Globe. “If you choose to hang them, you choose love.”

Superintendent Thomas Raab has said the directive was designed to create “neutral learning environments,” the Globe reported. Boston.com has reached out to Raab for comment on the policy and backlash.

“It is very important to me that all of our students are supported and accepted for who they are, and that we are messaging that stance through our actions and words,” he said in a letter to the district last week, according to the Globe. “I am sympathetic to the needs of our LGBTQIA+ students as well as the needs of all our underrepresented students.”

The policy allows staff members to wear clothing and buttons that display the symbols banned from classrooms, the Globe reported. In lieu of flags, LGBTQ+ ally stickers were also placed on classroom doorways. 

Tran told the newspaper she walked out of class to support three teachers she said were recently warned to stop displaying Pride flags in their classrooms. She also started an online petition to oppose the policy, which drew more than 600 signatures as of late Wednesday morning. 

“The Black Lives Matter flags and LGBTQ+ flags do not make a classroom ‘not neutral,’” the Change.org petition reads. “This statement tells everyone who falls under those categories that they are not people who are normal — that they are somehow different than everyone else.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, school committee members expressed frustration that Raab issued the directive without first consulting the committee, according to WBZ-TV, which reported that Raab said he has no plans to change the ban. 

Some community members who spoke at the meeting backed the policy.

“We support having only the American flag represented in our schools,” Lisa Lyons told the Globe. “Having other flags can be discriminatory, divisive, controversial, and it distracts from the main focus of academics.”

“Social justice issues,” she added, are not the goal of education. 

But Tran told WHDH the fight isn’t over.

“I plan to continue demonstrating these things until there’s so much attention to it that he [Raab] can’t ignore it anymore without harming the reputation of himself and our school,” she told the news outlet.

Abby Patkin

Staff Writer

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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