This story by Corey McDonald was first published by The Shelburne News on Dec. 7.
School board members with the Champlain Valley School District are questioning whether to keep a Black Lives Matter flag raised at its schools and instead raise an “original CVSD inclusive flag.”
Since the summer of 2020 — in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis — each of the district’s schools in Williston, Hinesburg, Charlotte and Shelburne have kept a Black Lives Matter flag raised to show “support and love for our Black students and caregivers and employees,” board chair Angela Arsenault, of Williston, said.
The district at the time received a signed letter from dozens of employees in the district asking the board to raise the flag at all schools.
When the board voted to raise BLM flags, “we knew that we were lifting up support for one specific marginalized community with very good reason,” Arsensault said.
“Has much changed as a result of that racial reckoning? I would argue not really,” she said. “So, the circumstances under which the flags were raised remain. We want to continue to show support and love for our Black students and caregivers and employees.”
Since the flag’s raising, however, the district “knew that we did not know how or when or why we would ever then take those flags down,” Arsenault said. “I think this is one idea … that we might pursue in order to lift up that same community as well as others at the same time.”
But, she added, it is “something that needs to be addressed with great care, and through an inclusive process.”
While Arsenault noted the suggestion was raised earlier this year in smaller committee conversations, public comment at recent board meetings has spurred the question.
Shelburne resident Nicole Koopman, speaking at an October meeting, questioned how chapters of the Black Lives Matter groups have responded to the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Koopman and others “questioned whether we should endorse a group that might be seen as offending and suppressing another minority within our community,” they said at recent meetings.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, some Black Lives Matter chapters have expressed support for both Hamas and Palestinian civilians under bombardment in the area.
“It stemmed from recent geopolitical activities that have been going out and surrounding Black Lives Matter,” Koopman added. “That’s what kind of stemmed and started it.”
The board, after voting to raise the flag in 2020, later enacted a flag policy allowing students or employees to request flags be displayed at school.
Most of the school board voted to have the administration come up with alternatives or recommendations on what flag, if any, should be flown at the schools. But board members said they wanted to make sure students’ voices were recognized in the process, so it’s likely to be the first of many discussions on the subject.
“I think before we have the administration make a flag or decide what flag we’re going to fly, we need to have a sense of the climate and the tolerance from our students and staff and everybody,” board member Brendan McMahon of Williston said. “We need a recommendation from the administration of how to move forward.”
Hinesburg board member Keith Roberts agreed, saying it was time “to revisit this decision” but noted that he would “like to hear input from our students and our communities.”
Board member Barbra Marden of Shelburne — the board’s lone person of color — questioned whether it should be a priority, given the district’s budget work, but did say she felt the Black Lives Matter flag should come down.
“I would ask that maybe they come down at this point,” she said of the flags. “I see where we could get concerns from the community, but it’s something that should be on the table for the board to consider for discussion.”
“I am a person of color. I supported the flag going up, but I feel at this time, we need to take a pause,” she said. “That is my ask.”
