Pride Flag Vandalized With 'Trump 2024' At Waukesha West: Father

WAUKESHA, WI—A Waukesha father is speaking out after a gay pride flag was vandalized at his daughter's school.

David Simmons, a priest at St. Matthias Episcopal Church, told Patch the incident happened Friday at Waukesha West High School. Simmons' daughter is a part of the LGBTQ community, he said.

Simmons did not identify his daughter and told Patch she wasn't comfortable speaking about the incident.

A student involved in the student Gay-Straight Alliance handed out pride flags at a pep rally, Simmons wrote in a blog post. Simmons’ daughter and her friends were sitting at a table when another student came by and put one of the flags down and walked away, according to Simmons’ post quoting his daughter.

"It had been written on. The words were 'Trump 2024' and 'B — Blue, L — Lives, M — Matter.' We were stunned. The student came back later, and we asked them what they meant by it. 'It’s a joke,' he said, not very convincingly. Eventually, another student came over, picked up the flag from in front of them, rolled it up, and walked away."

Joe Koch, deputy superintendent told Patch he couldn't discuss specifics of Simmons' report. "The incident was brought forward to the attention of the administration, and we are investigating it," Koch said.

Koch confirmed that a student's father reported the incident Monday but added that he couldn't reveal the outcome of the investigation.

Ongoing Controversy

Controversy has surrounded what the district considered advocacy signs in the classroom. In August, the district asked teachers to remove such signs from classrooms.

The district sent a letter to educators in August outlining the decision and cited the need to keep personal beliefs and convictions out of the classroom.

"Our role is educator/teacher, not activist/advocate in the classroom," the district said.

James Sebert, superintendent of schools, said in the letter that the district needed to work with students to think critically about events in the world and work collaboratively to solve problems.

"Our classroom environments need to be engaging, reflect the curricular area being delivered and must be welcoming to all students. We need to ensure that what is posted in our rooms does not act as a barrier to any student, nor to serve as a divisive symbol among staff. Therefore, going forward, we are asking that all Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Thin Blue Line, Anti-racist classroom, and any other posters or materials to the such, are removed from the learning environments."

The letter also said the practice is consistent with the board policy about what it considered controversial issues in the classroom.

Simmons said the policy is broad as to what is considered "political."

"Anything that can be construed as political pretty much picks up anything in our lives," he said.

The removal of safe space signs and rainbow and gay pride flags sends the message to the LGBTQ community that it is not safe, Simmons said.

The Alliance for Education in Waukesha — a group of parents in Waukesha — created a Change.org petition that asks the district to reverse its ban on so-called advocacy signs such as the ones for the LGBTQ community.

As of Wednesday, it had more than 2,500 signatures.