MERIDIAN, Idaho — New insight into internal communications among top West Ada staff surrounding their public messaging after they ordered a sixth grade teacher to remove inclusive posters from her classroom.
A video where the district's Chief Academic Officer is seen practicing his responses ahead of appearing on a local podcast.
“‘Everyone [is] welcome. What’s wrong with everyone is welcome?” asked West Ada Multimedia Specialist Ken Hyde.
“First of all, there is nothing wrong with the spirit of that poster,” said West Ada Chief Academic Officer Marcus Meyers.
West Ada’s Chief Academic Officer Marcus Meyers sat down with the district’s in-house podcast crew to practice and pick what he would and wouldn't say, as a guest on ‘The Ranch' podcast in March.
“What if we started with a timeline of who I am? And why am I an educator?” said Meyers.
Meyers mentions the district received comments from West Ada families regarding classroom posters months ago.
“So what we did is we went in and observed, and we created guidance on what is our policy 402.1,” said Meyers in the mock podcast.
Meyers says the posters, which they asked 6th grade World Civilizations teacher Sarah Inama to take down, violated that policy of having a ‘curricular-based classroom'...
“Again, we do this to create neutral classrooms so that students are learning,” said Meyers.
Over the last few weeks, Idaho News 6 has spoken to several West Ada students, parents, and community members who feel inclusive posters like these actually do help create a safe learning environment.
“A lot of the people who work in the district, I don’t think they realize how important it is for classrooms to look welcoming, not just feel welcoming,” said high school student Nate Zimmerman.
“This one particular message of 'Everyone is Welcome,' is something I hope that they would reconsider. For kids to learn and to thrive and to be doing their best as students and people, that is a pretty key message," said Christina Bruce-Bennion, Executive Director for Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.
West Ada has repeatedly turned down Idaho News 6’s requests for an interview, but in the mock podcast, Meyers practices his responses with the clear expectation that ‘The Ranch’ Podcast host Matt Todd would go easy on him.
“I’m trying to decide how nasty I want to get with you, and how much I want you, you know, I don’t think Matt’s going to do that,” said Hyde.
“Matt’s going to ask those questions exactly how you just asked them?” asked Meyers.
“Yeah,” said Hyde.
On ‘The Ranch,’ Meyers explained why he thinks the poster in question doesn’t comply with district policy:
“The interpretation of the visual images, that’s the issue that exists here,” said Meyers.
Meyers also continued to defend the district's decision to not speak with local media.
“It isn’t about the posters. It isn’t about the interviews that we follow up on, it isn’t about the emails to our community. What it’s about is: our incredible teachers meeting students at the door and greeting them,” said Meyers.
