Teacher quits after being told to take down Pride flag

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Mich. — A section teacher says helium quit his job with the Three Rivers School District this week implicit a quality regarding a Pride emblem hanging successful his classroom.

Russell Ball said the quality stemmed from a parent's ailment and added that helium felt taking the Pride emblem down went against what helium stood for arsenic a subordinate of the LGBTQ community.

"When the medication came astir and told maine to instrumentality down my pridefulness flag, I told them no," Bell said successful a TikTok video. "I was not going to beryllium an progressive subordinate successful the suppression and oppression of an already marginalized radical that I'm a portion of."

Ball, who identifies arsenic bisexual, said helium wanted his schoolroom to beryllium a harmless spot for everyone.

"I had students that were blessed to spot the emblem and successful the country that were telling me, 'Thank you for being here,'" Ball said.

Ball said helium wasn't the lone schoolhouse worker to alert a Pride emblem successful the classroom. However, helium said helium was the past 1 to clasp retired aft 2 emails sent by schoolhouse officials asked teachers to instrumentality them down.

"They were asking maine to beryllium complicit and successful keeping this radical of students marginalized, and each I've gone done acquisition is to combat for those students," Ball said. "It wasn't thing I was going to do."

He shared a mates of substance messages betwixt him and the schoolhouse principal. In those messages, helium told the main that helium could not instrumentality the emblem down successful bully conscience.

The texts amusement that the main told Ball that the petition to instrumentality down the flags was coming from the district's lawyer and superintendent.

In a statement, interim superintendent Nikki Nash said the contented implicit the flags is "ongoing" and that she is moving with the schoolhouse committee and attorneys to supply a harmless spot for students.

The schoolhouse board's adjacent gathering volition instrumentality spot connected Dec. 6. Ball says that helium and others program to protestation the school's determination to region the Pride flags during that meeting.

Ball says helium worries astir the students who place arsenic LGBTQ aft his struggles increasing up.

"I consciousness similar had we had the harmless spot and capable to person radical that we could place with, I wouldn't person struggled with my ain sexuality for 30 years due to the fact that we didn't person that normalization of the community," Ball said.

This communicative was primitively published by Matt Witkos connected Scripps presumption WXMI successful Grand Rapids, Michigan.