A key House committee voted 12 to 4 to advance a bill that would effectively ban pride flags in Tennessee classrooms Wednesday. That vote followed a vocal debate that even involved questions of whether the bill would allow Nazi and Confederate flags in classrooms.
Representative Gino Bulso’s, R-Brentwood, says he’s proposing the bill to ensure children aren’t exposed to values in the classroom that their parents oppose.
“(This bill) really addresses one issue, which is whether parents should be the ones who decide what values their children are exposed to when they go to school. Prior to filing this bill, I received complaints from parents in my county and other counties about the presence of different political flags in classrooms across the state,” said Bulso.
The bill attracted a crowd of opponents carrying signs saying, “Hands off our flags.” Before voting, committee members heard from some of those opponents including Vanderbilt professor Erica Bowton.
Bowton said recent cases such as Kennedy v. Bremerton reinforce the fact that teachers do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of expression at school, and that not everything can be subject to government control.
“If your beliefs are firmly held, they should not be threatened by the beliefs of others,” said Bowton. “This bill is yet another signal on a long list that certain groups are not welcomed in this state and the more you push, the more these groups will resist with more ‘non-flag’ rainbows, more posters, more signs, more pride. I know Tennessee to be beautifully diverse. If we want the American flag and the Tennessee flag to mean something, we cannot keep passing laws that exclude certain groups.”
Originally, Bulso’s bill would allow only the Tennessee State flag and United States of America flag to be displayed in classrooms. After revisions, the bill now allows flags that are:
- United States of America flag.
- The official Tennessee State flag.
- A flag that contains a memorial and cannot be distributed or altered.
- POW/MIA (Prisoner of War/Missing in Action) flag.
- A flag that represents a Native American tribe.
- A flag that represents a city, county, metropolitan government, or other political subdivisions of the State of Tennessee.
- Flags that represent a unit, branch, or other divisions of the armed forces, including ROTC.
- A flag that represents a country or a political subdivision.
- A college or university flag.
- A temporary flag displayed as part of a bona fide course curriculum.
- An official school flag or the flag of an organization authorized to use a public-school building when the organization is using the building.
House Democrats questioned whether the changes would allow the Confederate flag or the Nazi flag to be displayed, a question Director of Legal Services Anastasia Campbell was unable to answer.
“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals and answer fact questions, I can only speak to the plain language of the statute and I’m not going to be able to answer questions that would be resolved by a court,” said Campbell.
House Republicans pointed out that those questions would still be present whether the bill passes or not.
All three Democrats voted on the committee voted against the bill along with Republican Representative John Gillespie, R-Memphis.
