MARBLEHEAD — The Marblehead School Committee continued gauging public opinions on its potential flag policy Thursday during a student-focused public forum.
Jenn Schaeffner, School Committee Chair, began by telling the students she hoped the meeting would be “as much of a dialogue as we can,” as her priority was hearing student feedback.
A Marblehead High School senior kicked it off by stating that she didn’t believe the School Committee was “effectively” including student voices in their decision-making process when considering the ability to have Pride, Black Lives Matter, Juneteenth, and other flags flown on school property.
“When making final decisions about what flags are displayed, students, teachers and administration should be consulted as it is our building and our responsibility as members of this school and community to uphold the Marblehead Public Schools mission statement,” she said.
Another student shared her initial impressions of Marblehead Public Schools to explain why she feels passionately about having the aforementioned flags flown on school grounds.
“I remember walking in on the first day of fourth grade and seeing all these different, colorful banners that had all kinds of groups represented and thinking, ‘Oh, this is a place where everybody is safe, and I would love to be part of that,’” she said.
“I don’t want to be at a tournament and have someone say, ‘Oh, you’re from Marblehead. That’s the town that banned all those flags, right?’ I don’t want to be associated with (basically) taking away voices from the students.”
In an effort to take the initiative, the students conducted a survey within their student body, which had 109 responses. The vast majority of students, 103 of the responses, expressed a desire for student voices to be at the forefront of this conversation. Two students said it should be a compromise between the School Committee and student opinions, and four students said there should be no student voices involved.
The data was shared with the School Committee.
The students’ proposal was for the School Committee to approve that any flags not currently allowed be the school administration’s responsibility to approve, in hopes that the administration would allow for student input.
A School Committee board member asked the students if flags and banners are the only reason students feel safe, and what else the School Committee should do to ensure everyone feels welcome. She emphasized that she has a hard stance on bullying for any reason, and she found it “heartbreaking” to know that some students don’t feel seen or welcome within the schools.
One student responded by saying that flags are obviously not the only step to be taken to show students that school is a safe environment, but visual representation is incredibly important.
“Something as concrete as seeing a symbol of something you believe in is definitely a very important factor in mental fortitude of feeling safe and feeling accepted,” he said.
Schaeffner said there are some students who were not in attendance “who have spoken that they feel unsafe with certain flags, so that’s really where our challenge is because there are some flags that represent something that is unsafe.”
“It might not be unsafe to you or you or you, but it might be unsafe, or can feel unsafe, to other students who have other identification groups, so therein lies part of our challenge,” she said.
She added that school staff need to feel safe and welcome in the building and that, since the schools are public buildings, community members also need to be taken into consideration.
“I think you guys are coming from this at the wrong angle,” one student said. “If we consider that some people might be offended by the presence of an LGBTQ+ Pride flag, we can consider, of course, whether that is an opinion that we should consider [and] if we respect a bigoted opinion.”
Schaeffner emphasized that she has not heard any issues with the Pride flag in particular.
“Where we have had the challenge is with the Black Lives Matter flag because there has been a group, a pretty substantial group of folks in this town, who find that a very unsafe symbol for them, particularly since Oct. 7, 2023,” Schaeffner said. “I think that’s really where, when you’re more on the political side, is where we can get into some of these challenges, right?”
She added that an Israeli flag needed to be removed recently due to its political nature.
Superintendent John Robidoux thanked the students for their thoughtful, eloquently expressed opinions, but emphasized that no policy is going to make every constituent happy.
“In a situation like this, whatever the policy ends up being decided upon… someone’s going to be upset. It’s just the nature of our society,” Robidoux said. “I think understanding that and being OK and comfortable with that uncomfortably is what we need to do moving forward.”
The School Committee has not yet drafted a flag policy or had any readings of an official drafted policy, but Schaeffner said she anticipates that this issue will be resolved by the end of the school year.
