Pride flags at Upper Perkiomen Middle School have sparked debate about ‘political messaging’
A school board member raised the issue after noticing pride flags outside offices at the middle school. The school board's policy committee is debating whether they should be permitted.
Pride flags hanging outside middle school offices in Upper Perkiomen have reignited a dispute about whether the district’s schools should display them.
School board member Trina Schaarschmidt noticed a “really big Pride flag” outside the guidance office during a tour of Upper Perkiomen Middle School, she said at a February board meeting.
Noting parental concerns around “political messaging” in schools, Schaarschmidt suggested the board take up the issue.
Since then, debate has flared on local Facebook pages — where some accused flag opponents of deliberately inflating their 4.5-by-6.5-inch size in AI-generated pictures — and at board meetings, including a packed policy committee meeting earlier this week.
The discussion, which ended without the committee advancing any policy changes, is the latest instance of Pride flags becoming a culture-war controversy in area schools. In 2023, the former Republican-controlled board in Central Bucks banned Pride flags and other classroom displays of “advocacy,” drawing intense backlash from Democrats and supporters of LGTBQ students.
The Upper Perkiomen board, which is led by Republicans, previously invited debate on Pride flags in 2024, but didn’t make any changes.
On Tuesday, community members lined up at the microphone to address the board’s policy committee, responding to the latest call to reconsider the flags, according to a video of the meeting obtained by The Inquirer. Many who spoke were in favor of keeping them and voiced concerns about bullying and intolerance in district schools.
“When I see this flag, you might go, ‘That’s against my religion.’ But you know what? It makes me feel safe,” said Tanya Dorn, whose 6-year-old attends school in the district.
There were no Pride flags when Dorn was growing up, attending school in Pennridge, she said. She described having “dyke” carved into her locker and being bullied and attacked.
“I’m so grateful this flag exists, that a child, when I was younger, could see it and go, ‘Maybe I’m not alone. Maybe I don’t have to hurt myself,’” Dorn said.
Board member Peg Pennepacker told the crowd that the middle school made the flags available to staff members in 2021, as students readjusted to in-person instruction after pandemic closures.
“It was left up to each individual faculty member to whether or not to display it as a symbol,” Pennepacker said.
She read comments from Schaarschmidt, who wasn’t present Tuesday, but said her concern wasn’t with individual teacher displays.
The doors of the main office and guidance office “are shared institutional spaces,” Schaarschmidt said. She said “student and parents should be able to expect that when they enter a public school office, they are entering a space that serves everyone equally and is not perceived as aligned with any specific belief or position.”
Schaarschmidt said she had contacted nine nearby school districts and found that “none have Pride flag displays at middle school main office or guidance office entrances.”
Monica Oswald, another policy committee member, noted that one of the districts Schaarschmidt mentioned was North Penn — which celebrates Pride Month in June and has held ceremonies raising a Pride flag outside district offices.
The district shouldn’t be striving to be neutral, Oswald said, but to “include everyone.”
Disagreement within the board’s policy committee
Some flag opponents said their display wasn’t inclusive. One woman questioned why there weren’t signs in support of people with disabilities.
Ryan DeFrain, a pastor at Morning Star Fellowship in Pennsburg, said “a sign should not be required to create an environment where kids feel welcome.”
“The reality is, it doesn’t make my kids feel welcome,” DeFrain said. He said actions by teachers to create an accepting culture would send “a far more powerful message than any sign on a door.”
The Shield of Truth Network, a Pennsburg-based group “dedicated to educating Americans on their Constitutional rights with a Biblical foundation,” had asked community members to speak out against “the Large Gay Pride Flag” in the Upper Perkiomen middle school guidance office.
Public schools should focus on education, “not personal beliefs, ideological messaging, or the promotion of sexual orientation,” the group said in a message circulated in March.
Red Wine and Blue, a left-leaning group for suburban women, notified its members that the Pride flag was under attack in Upper Perkiomen. “We can’t let extremists being the ones making decisions for our kids,” the group said in a Facebook post.
While the Upper Perkiomen board has a 5-4 Republican majority, the policy committee includes two Democrats and two Republicans. The committee would need three members to agree on proposed policy changes to bring before the full board.
In addition to Schaarschmidt, Republican committee member Elizabeth Fluckey said the display of Pride flags was not “viewpoint neutral.”
Comparing the Pride flag to the Confederate flag and Palestinian flag, Fluckey said public schools should only display the American and Pennsylvania flags, which are “the only safe defaults.”
But Oswald and Pennepacker, both Democrats, opposed any policy change. “This needs to be done,” Oswald said.
In an email Thursday, Schaarschmidt said she didn’t consider the conversation over.
“I believe there is still a need for clearer guidance regarding displays in shared, school-controlled spaces,” Schaarschmidt said. She said community perception affects enrollment trends, and in turn district funding — “which is why these discussions matter from both an educational and financial standpoint.”