NOT DOING IT

Teacher: My School Demanded I Take Down Pride Flag From Classroom, So I Quit

An email reportedly went out to school staff on Friday telling them not to display the Pride flag.

A Michigan middle school teacher says he told his bosses to shove their job after they ordered him to take down a Pride flag in his classroom. Russell Ball, who identifies as bisexual, said an email went out to staff at Three Rivers Middle School on Friday telling them not to display the Pride flag—so he was left with no choice but to hand in his resignation Monday. Ball, 33, told MLive: “To me, the flag stands for love and inclusion for everybody, not just for members of the LGBTQ community... Removing the flag kind of felt like I was being complicit in suppressing and continuously marginalizing the students that have already been significantly marginalized, and I wasn’t gonna take a part in that.” Ball said he initially ignored the order to remove his flag, but then got a text from the assistant principal demanding he take it down, so he quit. “It’s something that’s so important to me, that my students have that safe space, that I wasn’t willing to continue in education without it,” he said. The school hasn’t commented on the incident.