On a brisk Wednesday morning, a group of bundled-up residents waved a wide array of Black Lives Matter flags by the road leading to Milton High School.
“When you can’t say three words that are positive without thinking it’s negative… that’s racism,” said Ember Nova Quinn, a Milton parent and former district employee who carried a Black Lives Matter flag that sported the red, black and green colors of the Pan-African flag.
By 7:15 a.m., eight people had gathered on the snow-lined sidewalk. They were there to protest the Milton Town School District Board of Trustees’ recent decision to rewrite the district’s flag policy and take down the BLM flag.
The previous policy, adopted in August 2019 at the urging of student activists, is slated to be replaced with a new policy that states, “The only flags displayed shall be the United States of America and the State of Vermont flags.”
Dev Welch waved a rainbow BLM flag outside on Wednesday. “I’m here to support students and show them their decision matters,” she said.
The five-member board reversed the district’s policy with a unanimous voice vote at its March 14 meeting. None of the members responded to requests for comment last week, and there was almost no discussion before they took the vote.
At the meeting, Scott O’Brien, a newly elected school board member, did call for some time, perhaps a week, to reflect before the flag comes down. “While it is policy right now, the BLM flag that’s up there meant a lot to a lot of people in the community so if we could push it out….It doesn’t have to come down immediately,” he said.
In reality, it will take at least a little longer.
A policy change must be warned for 10 days and face another board vote before taking effect, according to Superintendent Amy Rex. That might not happen until the board’s April 11 meeting.
Heather Preuss is among parents who have sent emails to the board alleging the new flag policy conflicts with at least six school board, district and state policies pertaining to equity and ethics.
The lone flagpole is not visible from the main road. It stands outside the high school building entrance at the end of a long entry road. As of last week, the BLM flag was still there, flying under larger U.S. and Vermont flags.
‘It’s about more than a flag’
Voting to take down the flag was one of the first actions the district’s new school board took upon being seated — and the protesters, several of whom are queer or non-binary, saw it as an ominous sign.
Milton had several competitive races for school board seats this month, and more than 23% of voters came out to the polls on Town Meeting Day — the highest turnout since 2017, according to the town clerk.
Incumbent Karen Stout narrowly won reelection. And after making previous unsuccessful bids, both Allison Duquette and Scott O’Brien won seats. They joined Jeremy Metcalf and Kumulia Long, who were not up for reelection this year.
Several members of the community and former students have also voiced concerns that the new board members could take further steps to undermine the district’s equity work.
They’ve pointed, in particular, to two members who have opposed the district’s equity policy and, in past races, have been endorsed by a group called Vermont Parents Against Critical Theory. The group’s website, which doesn’t list any staff names or organizational structure, contains anti-equity material as well as anti-trans content and articles critical of antiracism theory. Front Porch Forum blocked its posts last year, the group has claimed.
At the March 14 meeting, James Provost, a parent of two students, called for Duquette and O’Brien to either formally distance themselves from Vermont Parents Against Critical Theory or step down from the school board.
Residents from neighboring towns have also expressed concern about the Milton board. Johnny Chagnon, of Georgia, was among those protesting outside the school. With demographics changing, the region needs to embrace cultural diversity, he said.
“This current school board equals death to Milton’s growth, death to efforts to address racism within Milton High School, and death to preparing our students to be competitive in a highly diverse and global economy,” Chagnon wrote later in a message.
Those protesting on Wednesday said the flag decision was particularly upsetting because it took place amid what they characterized as an increase in attacks against marginalized people in Milton. Quinn, for example, is transgender and ran for school trustee this year but dropped out of the race citing threats that made them fear for their safety.
The decision to fly the Black Lives Matter flag was the product of a two-year effort led by the Milton Students for Social Justice group.
The group formed in 2017 and two years later petitioned the school board to fly the BLM flag, which led the board to create the first flag policy, according to Pete Wyndorff, a teacher at the high school who serves as a faculty advisor to the group.
The move reflected growing nationwide support for the Black Lives Matter flag as a symbol to address white supremacy and racism in places like schools, he said.
Mariam Pakbaz, a 2021 graduate of Milton High, was among the students involved. She called the board’s recent vote to remove the flag “heartbreaking.”
Raising the flag in Milton symbolized unification, solidarity and the community taking a stance against all types of racism, Pakbaz said.
“It was important for me because I’m a woman of color and I had always felt pretty marginalized in my own community,” she said, adding that she faced “a lot of microaggressions and a lot of racist behavior” growing up in the Chittenden County town of about 10,500.
Lydia Beaulieu, who graduated from Milton High School in 2023, said she attended multiple gatherings in support of raising the flag and participated in the protests that followed when it was stolen and vandalized. “A flag is representative of a larger movement, and that movement will not cease because its symbol is gone,” she said in a written statement.
Addie Lentzner, founder and co-executive director of the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network, made a similar point. “It’s about more than a flag. It’s about a commitment to work to dismantle systemic racism. If a school isn’t willing to put up a flag, will they be willing to commit to do the work?”
As the protesters waved their flags on Wednesday, some cars honked in support. A woman in a passing car slowed, rolled down the window and gave them a thumbs up, her breath clouding up in the frosty air.
“I didn’t hear what she said,” said one of the flag holders.
“I don’t know, but I saw a thumbs-up,” said another. “I’ll take that.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately described a Black Lives Matter flag carried at a protest outside Milton High School.
