A very contentious meeting in Sunol

No Pride flag, only U.S., state banners will fly over Sunol Glen school district, board decides, after chair directed sheriff's deputies to clear the meeting of attendees

PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons

COUNTY NEWS

SUNOL GLEN USD

—BANNER STATEMENT—Sunol Glen Unified School District Superintendent Molleen Barnes, defied the school board and forcefully condemned a resolution on Tuesday’s that critics say is intended to stop the LGBTQ Pride flag from being flown at school district properties.

—“We see you. You are welcome here. You are safe and you are loved,” Barnes said during a portion of the agenda slated for the superintendent’s comments.

—The Sunol Glen school ultimately voted to approve the resolution, 2-1, at a highly contentious meeting in which sheriff’s deputies were ordered to clear the room of attendees.

—School boardmembers Ryan Jergensen and Linda Hurley voted yes, boardmember Ted Romo opposed.

—Jergensen, who chairs the three-member school board, said the resolution was not intended to disparage any group. “The only speech being limited is the school districts,” he said.

—Some concerns were registered by the school board about a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that found the City of Boston violated the First Amendment when it blocked a Christian flag from being flown at its City Hall.

—Given the Sunol Glen’s small size, roughly 300 students, boardmember Hurley believed not approving the resolution could put the school district in the crosshairs of a potentially debilitating lawsuit.

—“I am very moved by some of the things I’ve read today,” Hurley said, citing dozen of emails sent to her opposing the resolution. “I must weigh in the legal ramifications of not doing this resolution today.”

—“I only fly the American flag is not saying I am against LGBT people. It is inclusive of all people,” she said.

—Boardmember Romo, however, pushed back, especially against Jergensen, levying a lengthy legal argument against him. “You are in the land of fear, not in the land of reality,” Romo told Jergensen. The resolution before the school board, Romo argued, limits the speech of district staff and students.

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