What West Ada is doing to its ‘content neutral’ policy after classroom-sign flap

The West Ada School District on Tuesday unveiled its proposed revised policy governing what teachers can display in their classrooms or wear at school.

The proposal comes after months of scrutiny over the district’s decision to require a teacher in Meridian to remove inclusive signs from her classroom believed to violate existing policy on “content neutral classrooms.” The teacher, Sarah Inama, has refused to take her signs, including one that states “Everyone is welcome here,” down.

The board appeared largely supportive of the proposed guidelines, which would define what counts as “content neutral” and add a visual display review and appeals process, though one trustee raised questions about how the policy squares with teachers’ First Amendment rights.

Trustee René Ozuna noted that the policy guides staff to create a “safe, professional, and distraction-free educational environment” and applies to a variety of aspects of staff conduct, including not only visual displays but also professional appearance.

“I want to make sure that we’re not using that language to not allow, for example, ‘Everyone is welcome here’ T-shirts,” Ozuna said at the board meeting. “I want to understand clearly what our staff’s First Amendment rights are related to dress code, and then look at whether or not we need to make changes to this policy.”

The school district’s attorney, Amy White, told the board she would come up with some guidance on “protected versus unprotected speech” that she would present to the committee in charge of reviewing the policy.

The policy is set to be revisited by the school board at two additional board meetings, with the goal of being implemented by the start of the 2025-26 school year.

The fate of Inama’s sign is still unclear.