Only three complaints were filed about classroom displays during the first year of Idaho’s flag and banner law.
House Bill 41 went into effect on July 1, 2025. The law dictates that school employees cannot display flags or banners that show opinions, emotions, beliefs or thoughts about politics, economics, society, faith or religion, according to IDE guidance.
As the bill was being discussed in the Statehouse, then-West Ada teacher Sarah Inama, made headlines nationwide when she refused to remove a sign reading “Everyone is Welcome Here” with multiracial hands. Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office said in an opinion that the sign would violate HB 41.
The bill tasked the IDE with enforcing the new law, so the department created a complaint form. Idaho Ed News filed public records requests periodically throughout the year to view complaints.
Below is a list of the three complaints and their resolutions.
“In God We Trust”
A patron from the Lake Pend Oreille School District filed a complaint the day after the law went into effect about signs with the United States national motto “In God We Trust.”
The complainant said that “In God We Trust” is a religious belief and not everyone’s opinion and therefore shouldn’t be allowed under the new law.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield responded that the poster is permitted because it complies with a different law allowing the national motto to be displayed.
“It is the Department’s position that if the school display in question complies with the national motto law, then it does not violate the school displays law,” Critchfield wrote.
“Everyone is Welcome Here”
An anonymous complaint was filed on Sept. 11 alleging that Julie Kirk, a Jerome Middle School teacher, was displaying an “Everyone is Welcome Here” sign on her classroom door.
The complaint was resolved at the district level after Jerome Superintendent Brent Johnson had a “quick conversation” with the teacher and she took it dowon.
Kirk told Ed News that she doesn’t personally believe the sign violates the law as written and it was “difficult” to decide how to respond to the complaint.
“I love my district and our administrators, and I would never want to take time or energy away from the many real and pressing issues we face in education,” Kirk wrote in an email. ” It is disheartening that a sign meant simply to reassure students that they are welcome has been turned into something political.”
PACE flag
A patron filed a complaint on February 2 alleging that a Moscow High teacher had a PACE flag in their classroom. The flag is a rainbow and has “pace” the Italian word for peace in white text.
The complainant argued the flag has been tied to several political and advocacy movements, including pride parades and protests against the war in Iraq.
Moscow Superintendent Shawn Tiegs discussed the flag with the teacher, who elected to remove it instead of waiting for a determination from the state.
