MERIDIAN, Idaho — “Because at the end of the day, the definition of a neutral classroom is that everything has a curricular tie. Without that, you end up picking and choosing your issues within the classroom,” said Marcus Myers, Chief Academic Officer for West Ada School District.
Making international headlines, West Ada officials addressed the controversial removal of two posters from Lewis and Clark Middle School teacher Sarah Inama's classroom in a podcast discussion. This followed the district's request for their removal and a defense of that decision.
“When we enforce that policy, we have to enforce it across the board,” Myers said.
Myers discussed the district's policies and the events surrounding the removal request in a recent episode of the podcast "The Ranch."
“Can you help me understand the nature of ‘Hey, we are trying to protect you from complaints?’” asked Matthew Todd, creator of The Ranch Podcast.
“And I think the nature of policy is to respond when there is a complaint, but the other aspect of policy is that we want to be proactive,” said Myers.
Idaho News 6 has been closely following this story, which gained attention when dozens of students walked out in protest of the "Everyone is Welcome Here" poster removal. In response, a local screen printing shop has created supportive shirts to stand in solidarity with the poster.
But Myers expressed that while everyone is welcome at West Ada, the poster does not meet their policy.
“If there was a poster that was hanging here with a black background and white words, do you think the team would have objected to that?” asked Todd.
“No, I don’t think so,” Myers responded.
Policy 401.2 in West Ada indicates that staff may not use school property, including classrooms, conference rooms, or offices, to hang or display any posters, signs, flags, or other images related to political or controversial topics.
“But we want to make sure the interpretation of the visual images is the issue that exists here,” said Myers.
He also emphasized that this is not just an issue for West Ada but also a statewide concern.
I reached out to Matthew Todd regarding his interviews with two other West Ada officials, but he said he had nothing further to include about them.
“It’s important that we engage in these conversations, but at the end of the day, we have to adhere to policy,” Myers said.
