This is an adapted excerpt from the July 2 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
Back in March, we brought you the crazy story of Sarah Inama, a history teacher in Idaho who decorated her sixth-grade classroom with inspirational posters. Inama displayed signs with messages such as “In This Room, Everyone Is Welcome, Important, Accepted, Respected, Encouraged, Valued, Equal,” along with an even more straightforward one showing children’s raised hands with the tagline “Everyone Is Welcome Here.”
The posters showcased motivational messages simply meant to tell students: Whoever you are, you belong here. It is the type of poster that a lot of us probably saw growing up in classrooms. And it really shouldn’t be controversial, but it was.
Earlier this year, Inama shared that her school’s administration ordered her to take down the posters. She said officials told her the signs were in violation of district policy and that, in “today’s political environment, they’re considered a personal opinion.”
Inama told a local news station that after meeting with administration officials, she went back to her classroom, put the signs back up and emailed her school’s principal “and said, ‘I just … I don’t agree. I don’t agree that this is a personal opinion. I feel like this is the basis of public education.’”
Ultimately, Inama ended up resigning in May. And on July 1, a new law went into effect in Idaho that prohibits flags or banners depicting political viewpoints from being displayed in public K-12 classrooms.
The state’s attorney general, former Republican Rep. Raúl Labrador, put out guidance for enforcement of the new law, writing that the Idaho Department of Education “must consider whether the displayed flag or banner illustrates or shows someone’s opinion, emotions, beliefs, or thoughts regarding politics, economics, society, faith, or religion.”
Now, if you’re thinking, “Oh, that’s pretty general.” No, Labrador’s guidance specifically references Inama and the phrase “All Are Welcome Here.” “These signs are part of an ideological/social movement which started in the Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump,” it reads. Just to fact-check the attorney general, the signs he’s referencing did start at a Twin Cities high school. But that was only after someone sprayed racist graffiti on the school on the heels of Trump’s 2016 win. That incident spurred a group of local mothers to make the sign and reassure the kids that everyone is welcome. So, when you hear Republicans talking about fighting the “woke” culture, keep an eye on what they decide to cancel because it “might offend someone,” and then ask yourself: Who exactly is it that is offended by such a sign?
Chris Hayes hosts “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday through Friday on MS NOW. He is the editor-at-large at The Nation. A former fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Hayes was a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation. His latest book is “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” (Penguin Press).
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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