The Sonoma Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 3-2 on Oct. 8 to adopt a new flag policy that requires schools to fly only the American flag, the California state flag and, where applicable, a school flag during the academic day. The vote ends the daily display of the Progress Pride flag that has flown at Sonoma Valley High School since 2019.
Under the policy, any other symbolic flag or banner representing a specific group must first win school board approval and can only be flown during a designated awareness month. In other words, no single cause gets a permanent perch on school property going forward; any group wanting recognition has to apply through the same process as everyone else.
Board President David Bell, who voted for the change along with trustees Jason Lehman and Catrina Landry, said the old arrangement never gave other groups a path to the flagpole.
“Our job as trustees is to represent all students equally, a principle that runs throughout our board philosophy policy,” Bell said at the Oct. 8 meeting, according to The Press Democrat. “When the flag went up in 2019, no process was created for any other group to apply. What was called inclusion became, in practice, exclusion of all but one group.”
Trustees Anne Ching and Gerardo Guzman voted against the policy.
Students are not taking the change quietly. The high school’s Gender & Sexualities Alliance is organizing a walkout for 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, with community supporters set to gather across the street from campus starting at 11:30 a.m. Students are being encouraged to wear rainbow colors, carry Pride flags and bring signs. A second demonstration is planned for 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, when protesters intend to plant Pride flags on the school’s front lawn.
GSA President Madeleine Edwards called the board’s decision an attack on LGBTQ students.
“I’ve been advocating for the pride flag because growing up queer, there’s this assumption that you might not belong in every new room you walk into,” Edwards said. “It’s a really isolating feeling, and as the president of GSA, it’s my responsibility to try to make Sonoma Valley High feel like a place where LGBTQ students belong.”
Edwards went further, accusing some board members of acting out of hostility.
“It’s no secret that the flag came down because of homophobic sentiments, and the way that some board members discussed the issue was extremely insensitive and oftentimes offensive,” Edwards said.
The fight has history. Bell ordered the Pride flag taken down in January on his own authority, a move reversed four days later after backlash and complaints that he had acted without the full board’s input. Critics now say the board’s majority is rushing the new restrictions through before a newly elected trustee takes office in December. Monday was the flag’s last scheduled day flying under the old policy.
Sonoma Valley joins a growing list of California districts that have clashed over Pride flags in schools, including Temecula Valley Unified, Chino Valley Unified and Sunol Glen.
