This year the Park City High School tradition of seniors presenting a gift to the school has hit some roadblocks. The administration has nixed the senior class's plan to display the identity flags representing all students in the high school. Instead, they authorized national flags only.
The Park City High School Student Council purchased flags earlier this year which would have hung in the common area in the High School. The flags represent multiple clubs, identities, and national origins, including the Gay-Straight Alliance or GSA.
Park City High School Junior Jace Deininger is on the GSA Board and is the Gender and Sexuality Educator for students, faculty, and others.
"They scrapped all of the flags. So, the mental health flags, you know, Black Lives Matter flags, LGBT flags and military flags they scrapped all of that except for the country flags. And so, the consensus was that the LGBTQ flags were too political for the school to display. So, we weren't allowed to include them in the video, and we're not going to be allowed to hang them up in the school."
GSA students appealed to High School Principal Roger Arbabi during a meeting on Monday and asked the administration to reconsider their decision.
GSA Advisor Mary Sue Purzecki attended the meeting and said Arbabi told students a parent complained. The administration informed the Student Council only national flags would be allowed.
"So, he said a parent brought it to the attention of Dr. Gildea, and then they decided that these flags were not going to be flown. And we're hoping they will understand the difference between political statement and identity."
Purzycki said she hopes the administration would consider the non-discrimination policy and realize the flags are not a political statement but an identity statement.
"They pulled up the harassment and anti-discrimination policy and quoted that to him which made me very proud."
Deininger said being a queer kid in Utah is hard, and removing certain flags was hurtful.
"Everyone on the GSA board and in the club are totally willing to take this as far as we need to, in terms of getting the flag flown, because queer kids have it artistically much harder than most other groups, though it was, it was painful to hear them imply that some identities deserve to be showcased and some don't."
Summer McGuire is the president of the GSA club. She attended the meeting with Principal Arbabi on Monday and asked the administration to rethink their decision.
"So, when the incident occurred. I looked at the district policy that night when I got home, and I found it and then I brought it up to him yesterday. And so, he's looking at the code just to make sure that I interpreted it correctly and whatever. So, he's looking into that to confirm."
McGuire said the meeting with Arbabi was productive, and they are waiting for a decision on their appeal to include identity flags in the senior gift project.
"He just wants to make sure that everybody on his campus feels safe at school and isn't under fire from other students or parents. So, he wants to make sure that he can still support and represent us, and we're coming up with other ways to do that, but just make sure that we're all safe."
Principal Arbabi has not responded to KPCW's request for comment.
Superintendent Jill Gildea responded to KPCW's request for comments with the following email:
"The Student Council Class Gift for 2021 are Origin Flags celebrating "Who We Are" so the gift consists of nation's flags that can be displayed or photographed.
None of the student groups or clubs are having a display as part of this donation/gift.
In the event of a student group or club display, ALL student clubs would be invited to participate.
If the students had, at one point, discussed a variety of displays or the idea of including student clubs/activities/sports, that would be part of a class discussion."
Gildea said her office had not received any messages, calls, or complaints related to the Senior Class Gift.
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