BLM flags are flying in your child's school, Dublin, Ohio.
Does it matter? Should you care?
Is Black Lives Matter (BLM) an innocuous statement?
Or does it represent a well-known political movement and organization with global influence?
Can the political context be separated from the noble affirmation?
Does it matter if the statement involves a symbol that has become inextricably intertwined with the political movement and its activists?
Is the slogan itself an effort to make a controversial message more attractive by toning down the rhetoric? Using words that sound positive but lack specific meaning - allowing for easily implied meanings?
Is it, at bottom, a loaded and/or controversial phrase that could be used to persuade someone to a particular political point of view?
Would your answers to the above questions be different if the item in issue looked like this:
Why?
Background information to inform your answer
1. There is a globally known organization and far-left political movement called Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM activists often display the clenched fist seen in the poster above.
As I flip through the BLM site today, I see this note at the top - “join the Movement to fight for freedom, liberation and justice…”. Then right below are a bunch of suggested ways to do this:
expand the Supreme Court to expand federal abortion rights
end qualified immunity for police officers in order “to end the prioritization of protecting white supremacy in policing.”
convict and ban Donald Trump from political office and all digital media platforms
expel certain Republican members of Congress
pass the Breathe Act
defund the police (because “more funding ≠ more accountability AND
more funding = more state-sanctioned violence”)
buy exclusively “from Black-owned businesses” and move your money from “white corporate banks to Black-owned ones” because “white-supremacist-capitalism invented policing in order to protect its interests and put targets on the backs of Black people.”
support Jossie Smollett during his trial - which is referred to as a “white supremacist charade” in a system that is “designed to oppress Black people.”
call on President Biden to pay reparations to all Black people
2. Dublin City Schools has a few relevant policies that could apply here.
DCS Board policy po2240 states in part: For purposes of this policy, a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion and/or likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.
DCS Board policy po2240 also states in part: a) that the Board will not permit the introduction of controversial issues that attempt to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view or that is unrelated to the instructional goals of the course and level of maturity of the students, b) that a teacher must identify her personal opinions as such and must not express such an opinion for the purpose of persuading students to his/her point of view, c) that parents must be given the opportunity to review such lessons and/or materials and the option to excuse their child from such lessons and/or material, and d) the Superintendent shall develop administrative guidelines for dealing with controversial issues and with parental concerns about the program content or the use of particular materials.
DCS Board policy ag3231A which provides in part, “nonschool related activities, including political activities…are not appropriate within the school setting…specifically literature supporting or opposing one or more…issues, or a particular point of view; nonschool related, political, and/or commercial literature… supporting one or more…issues or a particular point of view shall not be displayed within the schools…unless done as part of any approved teaching unit” and that “employees of the School District shall not engage, during the course of their employment, in any activities that support or oppose one or more…issues or a particular point of view during working hours.”