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Children of all races were welcome in Sarah Inama’s sixth-grade classroom. But as of February 2025, she wasn’t allowed to say so.
A poster on the wall said, “Everyone is welcome here.” It shows children’s hands in a variety of skin tones. Another sign read, “In this room everyone is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued, equal.”
Inama taught in Meridian, Idaho. In 2023, the district created a new policy that regulated what teachers were allowed to display in classrooms. The guidelines say that posters, signs, and images must be “content neutral and conducive to a positive learning environment.” And the school maintained that Inama’s were not.
When she asked what, specifically, was wrong with her signs now, given that she’d had them up for years, a district official told her, “the political environment ebbs and flows, and what might be controversial now might not have been controversial, three, six, nine months ago, and we have to follow that.”
People have to be able to express differing opinions, Inama’s principal told her. The signs had to go, or she was going to be considered insubordinate.
Inama said, “The sign is emphasizing that everyone, in regards to race or skin tone, is welcome here no matter what… the only other view of this is racist.”
I reached out to Sarah Inama, and she told me that when the signs were removed, students noticed right away. “They were legitimately confused,” she said. “I was so sad I could barely answer their questions. And I would not be the one to tell them that the district wanted them to come down because they thought that message was controversial. I would die to have to explain that to a child… that they are being affected by discriminatory views because those views are being recognized as valid opinions by their school’s principal.”
In fact, the school allows other posters that express the same message. “Teachers commonly have posters that have messages like ‘Welcome’ for their students,” Inama said. The school also “has school-wide posters (made by our administration) that say students can exhibit kindness by ‘welcoming others and embracing diversity.’” The only obvious difference between these messages and her poster is that the hands in hers represented different races. “We can say we welcome others and embrace diversity, but showing representation of our students' skin tones is too controversial?”
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What does it say about us that we would rather accommodate bigotry than welcome all children openly? While adults may wrestle with these existential questions, children understand exactly what is being communicated. “I have overheard comments by some students that unfortunately made it clear that they understood the silent message the district was sending,” Inama said. “I was told that ‘everyone is welcome here’ is not something everyone believes.”
At a packed school board meeting, parents weighed in. (You can watch the video here. The part where the parents speak starts around 5 minutes and 30 seconds in.) “What is the political opinion?” asked one mother. “I still have not been told that. For an opinion to be an opinion is that people… don’t agree on something, so I just want to know what that is.”
Another mom scolded the board: “The way this policy has been implemented hasn’t prevented conflict. It has fueled confusion and mistrust.”
And a father called the school’s decision “absolute[ly] ridiculous and utterly embarrassing.”
The controversy has sparked community protests, with thousands expressing support for Inama and “Everyone is welcome here” T-shirts being sold across the world, Boise TV station KTVB reported. Supporters organized demonstrations outside the district offices.
One student, Finn Angelopoulos, a senior in the West Ada district, said that if the district has policies that “are being used to discourage teachers from making their students feel safe and welcome at school, serious changes must be made.”
Rather than remove the signs, Inama resigned at the end of the school year. “I still do not think my posters violate the policy,” Inama told me. “The point of the policy was to make sure teachers weren’t hanging or advertising actual political statements or to push a certain agenda so the classroom remains a positive learning environment. I have read and acknowledged that policy every year. But I don’t agree that ‘everyone is welcome here’ is political or contentious.”
“Welcoming all children is literally the law. It’s not an opinion. Once we consider exclusionary views, that is a very slippery slope. That is allowing bigotry and hatred to hold a space in public education.”
Inama isn’t alone; a second teacher in the district also resigned in protest. Neriessa Armstrong, who has won two teacher of the year awards, wrote to district officials: “You made it extraordinarily clear that diversity is not welcomed here. You have reinforced that educators and parents who stand against this intolerance will be maligned and dismissed. Therefore, I am not welcome here either.”
So if everyone isn’t welcome in public schools, exactly who is? Explain. We’re all waiting with bated breath.