The Marblehead School Committee is developing a flag policy for the district’s schools in response to the controversy that came after a parent took down a Black Lives Matter flag hung in the high school’s cafeteria. Some kind of clear policy that could guide the efforts of students, teachers, and administrators who seek to raise flags has the potential to be genuinely helpful. It could prevent further disputes like the one earlier this year, and ensure that those who want to raise flags on schools can do so with the confidence that they will not get in trouble for their expression.
Unfortunately, the committee’s policy as currently drafted represents an overreach of power that will limit expression. It broadly prevents flying any flags or banners other than those of the United States, Massachusetts, or Marblehead. Other signs, flags, or banners will require the committee’s approval of requests submitted with a picture or drawing, measurements, and colors of the requested item. This applies to all areas of school grounds, including in students’ cars. Approvals will last for no longer than one month and will not be precedent-setting, meaning someone who receives approval will still have to apply in the future to do the same thing.
It has to be said that this policy would add an enormous amount of bureaucracy to this process as a whole. Faced with this kind of obstacle, many students who would otherwise want to show initiative by putting up flags are not going to do so. This might be the point of the policy in the first place, but it discourages the open expression of students, something school committees should actually be trying to positively reinforce.
This policy is also so broad and vague that it is going to prevent expressions of speech that are harmless and should be uncontroversial. Does the School Committee really think it is a problem if an extracurricular French club wants to put up a French flag in the room where it meets? Is a teacher hanging a Pride flag to represent that they are an ally to LGBTQ+ students such a priority for the School Committee? If students want to display Italian, Chinese, Dominican, or Norwegian flags in their locker as an expression of their heritage, why does the School Committee need to approve it once a month? And does this policy apply to flags or banners for the Marblehead Magicians, which are completely distinct and separate from the Town of Marblehead’s flag?
With this policy, the School Committee’s members are asking to take too much into their own hands. The committee is supposed to make sure the district’s school system is running smoothly and that its children are learning. It is not the arbiter of free expression on all school grounds, and its members do not inherently have a better sense of what flags are appropriate than teachers, administrators, or students. If the committee is not able to respect the judgment of students here, it has to be willing to defer to the adults who are actually in these buildings, rather than approving or denying from afar.
Stuart Foster is The Item’s opinion editor.
