Public Records: West Ada School District Defends "Everyone Is Welcome Here" Sign Removal

 

    MERIDIAN, Idaho - West Ada School District, which ordered a teacher to remove a sign reading "Everyone Is Welcome Here," is taking the defense.

    The Tell Viv Podcast, owned by Vivian Bostick, who owns VBN, recently reported on Sarah Inama, a Lewis and Clark Middle School teacher, who was told to take down two signs.

    One sign read, "Everyone is welcome here."

    The other? "In this room, everyone is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued, [and] equal."

    However, Inama was told to take the posters down as they weren't neutral and violated district policy.

    While she initially did, she felt off and put the signs back up. Now, they have to be down before the beginning of next school year.

    Bostick tried reaching out to a local TV station Sarah interviewed with to get in touch with her, but didn't receive a response before the deadline.

    While the West Ada School District's Chief of Staff and Communications, Niki Scheppers, was unavailable for a phone interview, she emailed a statement reading in part:

    "West Ada firmly believes that a truly welcoming and supportive environment is built through meaningful relationships between staff and students, not just posters on the walls. While visual symbols can be valuable, it's the daily interactions, encouragement, and sense of belonging fostered by our educators and peers that make the greatest impact."

    The statement refers to policy 401.20. The policy, named "Duties and Responsibilities," was originally adopted in 2009.

     To read the policy to yourself, you can click here.

    The local TV station, KTVB, reportedly filed a public records request with the district for internal communications regarding Inama. The station was allegedly told to pay $9,500 for over 7,000 emails. However, West Ada School District shared 1,200 emails for free with Idaho Ed News, which KTVB obtained.

    The public records included draft letters from the school board, and a mock podcast with Chief Academic Officer, Marcus Meyers, going over what he wanted to say on local podcast The Ranch with Matt Todd.    

    You can watch KTVB's reporting on the public records request below.

     

    The first draft the school board composed mentioned they are unpaid volunteers, affirmed that everyone is welcome at West Ada, and reiterates policy 401.20. The draft went on to say that Inama's sign had "additional graphics that were beyond the bubble but ultimately determined to have crossed the line of being potentially political."

    The "additional graphics" on Inama's "Everyone is welcome here sign" were hands of various races.

    "Unfortunately, in this case, the grievance process was bypassed and instead the media was contacted--and things went quickly downhill," the first draft continued.

    The first draft went on to criticize the media, stating that "[T]he media care neither about principle, nor learning, nor kids. They only care about clicks. And nothing stirs up clicks more than controversy." "You can imagine how that made our staff feel. And the administration. And the Board. I can only say that I hope you're never accused of being a racist by hundreds of people around the country you've never met with no ability to respond."

     A new draft was created by the Board with three short points, affirming that everyone is welcome at West Ada, policy 401.20 "keeps education first, free from distractions," and that "[m]istakes happen."

    

    Two days before Inama shared her story with KTVB, two days before Chief Academic Officer, Marcus Meyers, went on The Ranch with Matt Todd, Meyers practiced his answers on a mock podcast, recorded and uploaded as unlisted to YouTube. While VBN cannot find the video as it's unlisted, the parts mentioned are shown in KTVB's report.

    Lewis and Clark Middle School's sixth-grade principal, Monty Hyde, interviewed Meyers with some practice questions.

    "As an aside, I'm trying to decide how nasty I want to get with you and how much I wanna...you know, I don't think Matt's gonna do that," Hyde said.

    "Matt's gonna ask those questions exactly the way you ask them," Meyers responded.

    The mock podcast then went into the "Explorer Way" posters, hung up around Lewis and Clark Middle School. Under "Kind," it says to "Welcome others and embrace diversity."

     "Why was [Inama's 'Everyone is welcome here'] sign different?," Hyde asked.

    Meyers was unable to answer the question.

    A moment later, Hyde handed a paper to Meyers, saying "I've already put in some bullet points to what I think...how we should answer that. But I think Brian Holmes would ask that question."

    "And he should," Meyers responded. "Matt will not, but Brian Holmes will ask that question, because he zoomed on that in the deal, the term 'diversity' is right in there, he should've found that, and the moment he did that, I was like 'Uh!'"

 

     At the end, Hyde asked, "Do you think it's any accident that that all that's going on nationally with the Department of Education...is there any tie in there as to what's happening nationally to what's happening in West Ada this week?"

    "This was no accident at all, I think it was directly tied along with this, and the conversation we've had politically in the Department of Education, politically tied, both by the reporter and the teacher," Meyers stated.

    Hyde chuckled, saying "I don't like that answer," then laughing. "But it's not wrong!"

    "It's true," Meyers said. 

    "It's absolutely true!," Hyde responded.

    A KTVB reporter called out West Ada in their coverage,  saying, "It's absolutely not true, Mr. Meyers and Mr. Hyde...but you might know that, if you agree to speak with us about this instead of deciding to avoid tough questions and going on a safe space podcast."

    "We were told today that the pretend podcast was intended for internal training purposes only, yet, it was included in our public records request," stated the reporter.

    At the time of writing, one month after KTVB's coverage of the public records request, the West Ada School District has yet to release a statement to the public, beyond the initial media response from Scheppers.