Q Toon: All Safe Zones Matter

 

My cartoon this week derives from a local news story here in Wisconsin, but it's a story that is being repeated with minor variations across the United States.

The Arrowhead Union High School Board in ruby-red Waukesha County, immediately west of Milwaukee, voted this month to forbid any teacher from posting that their classroom is an "LGBTQ+ Safe Space."

Board President Kim Schubert strongly opposed having safe space stickers placed on classroom doors. Having such imagery and messaging, she said, could stunt students’ development at pivotal points in their lives.
“I believe that safe spaces are, in fact, a detriment to our society,” Schubert said.

One of the TV news reports included a comment that "all areas of the school should be considered to be safe," which struck me as a particularly specious argument, given that our current right-wing Supreme Court believes that the First Amendment to the Constitution gives a Right to Refuse Service Card to anyone who claims a religious exemption from doing their job.

In other states, legislatures have passed laws requiring school staff to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents, regardless whether the home environment is a safe or unsafe space for LGBTQ+ kids. If kids in those states get kicked out of the home and into the streets, I guess that's just fine and dandy with the Republican legislators who don't have to worry about being kicked out of their safe seats.

So as not to appear to be singling LGBTQ+ youth out for abuse, the Arrowhead High board also forbade flags or other signage associated with Black Lives Matter, Latino/a heritage, and so forth (well, of course they would). They even included MAGA flags in the ban, although I don't think there is much danger of any kid in Waukesha being teased or beaten up for being a little Trumpster.

Elsewhere in Waukesha, the school district fired a first grade teacher who complained after the district told her she couldn't include the Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet "Rainbowland" in a school program.

The lyrics were widely believed to focus on acceptance, but district officials said they found the song "could be deemed controversial."  

Tempel raised her concerns on social media and received national attention. She told news outlets, including Wisconsin Public Radio, that the Muppets' "Rainbow Connection" was initially banned but later accepted after pushback from parents and the Alliance for Education in Waukesha. 

She also told WPR the district had not offered any specific reasons for the ban, but "the only common thread between those two songs was the word rainbow."

Waukesha school district officials claim they are just avoiding potential controversial subjects in their elementary schools, but don't be surprised if you see a choir of Waukesha schoolkids singing "The Donald Trump Song" at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next summer.