Resident says 4-1 decision violates flag protocol banning merchandising, politics – calls for new flag honoring civil rights progress
by Guy Page
The Colchester School Board voted 4-1 Tuesday night to continue to fly the Black Lives Matter flag at town schools. But first it heard Colchester resident and educator Genna Barnaby explain why doing so violates flag protocol and policy. She also suggested an alternative flag to honor civil rights and the end of slavery.
The board voted to continue to fly the BLM flag for another three months, beginning July 1. Attendees said the only audience members who spoke up all wanted the BLM flag removed. “I did not see one student from the school district present nor was there any black person present,” said Barnaby.
The BLM organization uses its flag and the logo it carries for merchandising purposes. It’s inappropriate for the school district to fly a merchandising logo from the school flagpole, she said.
Rather than advertise and give implicit endorsement to a group founded by Marxists, “Colchester School District should consider a school-created flag that would symbolize CSD’s mission statement and intent,” and recognize events including the US legal ending of slavery on Jan. 1 1863, Martin Luther King Day on January 17, Black History Month in February, Juneteenth on June 19, 1865, and Vermont’s abolition of slavery on July 2, 1777,” Barnaby said.