Note: This letter was written to the ACSD Board. A copy was given to the Addison Independent

As a parent of a child at Weybridge Elementary School, I strongly oppose the school board’s May 12 decision to allow a privately funded flag pole designated to fly only an American flag at Middlebury Union High School.

We already have a flagpole that flies the American flag, the Black Lives Matter flag, and the LGBTQ+ flags. Given that this new flagpole is being funded to explicitly exclude all but the American flag, it sends a message to students, allies, and faculty that these communities are not a part of this country and are not to be celebrated or protected. Such a message fosters an unsafe environment for all students. In a community setting, a threat to anyone’s safety is a threat to everyone’s safety.

If we believe as a nation that we are “a government of the people, by the people, for the people,” then that includes and embraces every child. This additional flagpole is a disturbingly clear attempt to promote segregation in our community. There is absolutely no reason that the American flag should be pulled off the same pole to be raised on a pole separate from the other flags that represent the people who make up our population. As we are watching our neighbors get rounded up by unidentified ICE agents, and many families are keeping their children home from school to avoid family separation, the idea of erecting a flagpole to promote an ideology of superiority through nationality sends a cold gru down my back. It is not something that I am willing to sit back and quietly accept for the sake of “keeping the peace.”

Silence in the face of wrong is a dangerous precedent that is not something that our community can accept.

I also find it shocking that the school board made this decision without a community forum. The decision to allow an exclusionary measure on school grounds is frankly unacceptable and I urge you to revoke the permission.

Sepi Alavi

Weybridge