Parent Input Sought Following LGBT Sign Change At Long Valley School

LONG VALLEY, NJ — The Washington Township School District is seeking feedback and input from parents and community members on the new middle school initiative that will replace the former rainbow-colored Safe Zone stickers.

Officials from the district suggested the "Portrait of an LVMS Panther" initiative as a compromise and an alternative to the earlier Safe Zone stickers after receiving complaints and worries from nearby parents.

Long Valley Middle School principal Mark S. Ippolito claims that the process of developing a new symbol will allow the community to identify shared objectives and critical traits for success and will allow everyone to collaborate to promote and develop those qualities in local students.

To help narrow down the main community goals within the school, Ippolito has asked all community members and parents to answer four questions.

The four questions are as follows:

1. What are the key attributes for successful learning in the 21st century?
2. What are the strengths of LVMS students?
3. What do LVMS students struggle with?
4. What do we hope and dream for our students to be?

Parents are also asked to rank a number of educational goals in terms of how much emphasis or priority they believe each one deserves.

Following that, and once the shared values and goals have been identified, school officials will continue their work by incorporating these topics or themes into everything they do with and for the students.

The survey, which can be found here, will remain open for parent feedback until March 31, 2023.

"Once we’ve gathered and considered all of the feedback, we’ll share those results with the LVMS community when we unveil our Portrait of a Panther focus for the 2023-2024 school year," Ippolito said.

The original Safe Zone stickers were brought to the attention of the general public in December when the superintendent of the Washington Township School District announced the removal of rainbow-colored Safe Zone signs following complaints from parents and consultation with the school district's lawyers.

Superintendent Peter Turnamian announced the change at the Jan. 3 board of education meeting, stating that the signs, which depict a rainbow, would be replaced with a more common symbol to encourage kindness among all students.

Several LGBTQ students and supporters expressed their displeasure with the school board's decision, emphasizing that the stickers were a student-led initiative and that removing their work effectively silenced them

Turnamian claims that the new "Portrait of an LVMS Panther" illustration will still be heavily influenced by the student body. "This project is putting us on that path to define our core values so that we have a common vocabulary for talking about how we treat each other."