After some manufactured controversy over a Pride flag that has been flown at Sonoma Valley High School since 2019, the school board voted to remove it last week, which has prompted a protest by students.
As one annoying aspect of the polarized state of affairs around the country, school boards have taken issue with Pride flags, particularly those flown during Pride Month (June) but occasionally at other times as well. The argument usually goes in the direction of "why is this the only special-interest flag" that is being flown? But underpinning that is, of course, homophobia and transphobia and anti-wokeness, and some newly revived, Trump era fear by ignorant parents that children are being indoctrinated into something they don't endorse.
And this line of attack has creeped into the Bay Area in recent years, most notably in the tiny Sunol Glen Unified School District in the East Bay, where two conservatives elected to a three-person school board created a dustup over a Pride flag in the community three years ago. (Both school board members were then recalled a year later.) Also, in 2025, a man was arrested in Petaluma for threatening to "execute" school officials over the flying of a Pride flag there.
Earlier this year, the manufactured controversy came to the Sonoma Valley Unified School District, where newly installed school board president David Bell declared, as one of his first acts as president, that the seven-year-old Pride flag be removed from Sonoma Valley High School.
This was a custom-designed flag, featuring the rainbow stripes in addition to the school mascot, a dragon, at the center.
Bell's argument at the time: "In my opinion, the fundamental issue here is not one of 'if' the pride flag should be flown. It is one of, should the pride flag should be the 'only' flag flown?" Examples of other flags that might join it were Future Farmers of America or a Mexican flag for Cinco de Mayo.
As KRON4 reports, without greater support for his cause, Bell's decision was reversed and the community returned the flag days later. But Bell wasn't finished.
On Thursday, Bell successfully got a 3-2 vote through the full school board to remove the Pride flag permanently.
Students and LGBTQ+ advocates have been quick to sound alarms, and as the Sonoma Index-Tribune reports, students organized a walkout that took place at noon today (Tuesday), in addition to a plan to plant miniature pride flags all over the campus on Wednesday.
Lisa Storment, president of local advocacy organization Wake Up Sonoma, tells KRON4, "I’m extremely disappointed in the school board." But, she adds, "I’m very, very encouraged by the students who have decided that this fight isn’t over for them yet either. They’re very strong. They’re very resilient. And, you know, I think it’s really disappointing that our school board is not listening to the community."
Back in January, Storment said of Bell, "[He] doesn’t really seem to understand that there is a significant inclusion message that’s attached to the flag for these students."
Previously: Man Arrested After Making Multiple Threats to Petaluma School Official Over Pride Flags
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