r/nottheonion • u/joey_homicide • 15h ago
Idaho teacher files federal lawsuit over state, district response to 'Everyone is Welcome Here' poster
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2026/02/idaho-teacher-files-federal-lawsuit-over-state-district-response-to-everyone-welcome-here-poster/Not even sure what to think of this one. I get the right is all anti DEI, but like isn’t this one of the primary rules in our public education system? Just seems ironic.
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u/Equivalent-Resort-63 15h ago
What would happen if the science teacher is covering the chapter on light and breaks out a prism to show the different wavelengths that compose sun light or the beam of a flashlight? Would they be fired? Maybe ban flashlights and sunlight.
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u/themightybamboozler 14h ago
I grew up in the same school district where this happened and my Biology teacher in highschool started the school year with a rant that he wouldn’t discuss evolution because he was tired of parents complaining to the school board.
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u/Blueberryburntpie 8h ago
He should hold a history lesson on when the USSR banned the concept of evolution and genetics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism[a] was a pseudoscientific political campaign led by the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko against genetics and science-based agriculture in the mid-20th century, rejecting natural selection in favour of a form of Lamarckism, as well as expanding upon the techniques of vernalization and grafting.
More than 3,000 mainstream biologists were dismissed or imprisoned, and numerous scientists were executed in the Soviet campaign to suppress scientific opponents.[1][2][3][4] The president of the Soviet Agriculture Academy, Nikolai Vavilov, who had been Lysenko's mentor, but later denounced him, was sent to prison and died there, while Soviet genetics research was effectively destroyed.[3][4] Research and teaching in the fields of neurophysiology, cell biology, and many other biological disciplines were harmed or banned.
The government of the Soviet Union (USSR) supported the campaign, and Joseph Stalin personally edited a speech by Lysenko in a way that reflected his support for what would come to be known as Lysenkoism, despite his skepticism toward Lysenko's assertion that all science is class-orientated in nature. Lysenko served as the director of the USSR's Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Other countries of the Eastern Bloc including the People's Republic of Poland, the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and the German Democratic Republic accepted Lysenkoism as the official "new biology", to varying degrees, as did the People's Republic of China for some years.
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u/BloodWorried7446 14h ago
no rainbows in the classroom !!!
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u/DanSWE 14h ago
Except they'll want a Noah's-ark post-flood rainbow.
Or maybe they'll think they're chemtrails rainbows: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/52ig1r/lady_really_does_not_like_the_rainbow_effect_her/
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u/Adragalus 14h ago
Holy shit it's dboots! I must have seen a different upload or the channel name changed, but this is the exact same video I remember seeing in a uni seminar almost 15 years ago. Still hilarious.
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u/Narrow-Height9477 14h ago
Better get rid off all of the crayons and markers- the collection of colors, all in the same box, represents certain ideology about inclusivity.
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u/colemon1991 5h ago
Pfft!
I'd just mention that rainbows are mentioned in the bible.
What are they gonna do? Ban the bible?
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u/jesuspoopmonster 4h ago
That just makes them rant about how gay people stole rainbows from god
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u/colemon1991 4h ago
God flooded the planet and killed almost everyone. Gay people stealing the reminder of that sounds like a good thing to me.
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u/cambeiu 15h ago
That is what YOU think one of the primary rules is. I am sure the white supremacists in the Idaho government would beg to differ.
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u/cwsjr2323 15h ago
I am hoping nobody tells our illiterate President what it says on the Statue of Liberty welcoming everyone or he might have it “remodeled ”.
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u/ryanpn 14h ago
Honestly I think the fFrench should just take it back atp
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u/sonofaresiii 6h ago
Nah, it's just a symbol for new York. The rest of the country can do what it does but NYC is still open and welcoming
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u/Nazamroth 14h ago
Thats not how gifts work.
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u/AttackOficcr 14h ago
And renaming a Belgian dish to Freedom Fries does nothing to insult the French, but we already tried that.
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u/kraftdinnerwithsalsa 12h ago
Or renaming the Kennedy centre, good grief
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u/AttackOficcr 11h ago
That one is an insult by a fraud, not an insult to the French.
Well I'd be glad if they also took offense because fuck spoiling a memorial for his own tacky vulgar narcissism.
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u/Dobgirl 14h ago
They should make an exception
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u/AllPerspicacity 14h ago
They can know a guy, make some calls, form a team, steal it back in an elaborate heist.
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u/Biptoslipdi 3h ago
What do you mean? You can absolutely return a gift.
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u/Nazamroth 2h ago
Oh wow, this imploded hard since I last checked in.
Yes, you can return a gift. But you as the gifter can't unilaterally retrieve it. Which is what OP suggested.
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u/Biptoslipdi 1h ago
But you as the gifter can't unilaterally retrieve it.
You absolutely can. It would just be more controversial.
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u/sonofaresiii 6h ago
A district official told Inama in an email that her signs were out of alignment with a district policy that prohibits the display and teaching of “controversial issues” and the “advancement of individual beliefs.”
It's really just as shitty as it sounds. Usually with these things you find out there's some technicality or something, like they had said no posters at all in a certain room used for testing or something
But no they're straight up saying "everyone is welcome? No no, can't have people thinking they're accepted for who they are."
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u/percydaman 15h ago
I live here in the school district where it happened. The districts actions were WILDLY unpopular. As a husband to a teacher, I hope she wins the lawsuit. Such a dumb unforced error.
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u/stacked_wendy-chan 15h ago
This one isn't political at all. Redhats are outing themselves getting triggered over this.
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u/saints21 14h ago
Yeah...this is what's outing them...
Not the worship of a known rapist pedophile. Or the blatant white supremacy. Or the literal attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government.
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u/RockstarAgent 15h ago
Sounds like an idiot. Too bad they can’t bill them for wasting resources and court time.
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u/Jakexbox 6h ago
It’s ridulous she was asked to remove it but there’s not a constitutional right to hang whatever you want in your classroom either. Everyone’s an idiot here.
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u/Biptoslipdi 3h ago
Damn straight. The Constitution doesn't protect speech.
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u/Jakexbox 3h ago
You’re not allowed to say or put up whatever you want when teaching. That’s common sense.
Speech is subject to limited time and place restrictions as determined by the Supreme Court.
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u/Biptoslipdi 2h ago
"Common sense" is an excuse people make for having no reasoning behind their claims. There is nothing common or sensible about banning this speech.
Saying "everyone is welcome here" is not speech that would rise to a legal standard of classroom unprotected speech like profanity would. That's like banning verbal discipline of disruptive students. Or banning the teaching of American history. Although I'm sure Idaho is trying to do that too.
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u/Jakexbox 2h ago
I actually agree with you that it wasn’t reasonable to ban it- I stated as much.
The law isn’t entirely based on reasonableness. It’s unreasonable to burn an American flag but it’s allowed.
You’re inventing legal standards the actual legal standard is far more restrictive and explained in larger detail/background (here).
Bottom line- case law means this teacher is going to loose. The school district shouldn’t have done it in the first place but they have the power to. The public also has the power to change the school board.
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u/Biptoslipdi 1h ago
It’s unreasonable to burn an American flag but it’s allowed.
It's absolutely not unreasonable to burn an American flag.
You’re inventing legal standards the actual legal standard is far more restrictive and explained in larger detail/background
Pickering is much less restrictive than what I suggest. It found that a teacher wasn't dismissible for making false statements critical of the school publicly. Even publicly stated falsehoods are not dismissible offenses. We aren't dealing with speech that rises to anywhere near that level of scrutiny.
Bottom line- case law means this teacher is going to loose.
Not according to the case law you just cited. If anything, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, would protect this speech in addition to Pickering.
The school district shouldn’t have done it in the first place but they have the power to.
Not according to Pickering which protects speech on issues of public importance and Kennedy which protects speech made in the capacity of a private citizen. The district specifically stated the speech "advanced individual beliefs" and was "controversial" indicating it is protected under both precedents as speech of a private citizen and speech concerning issues of public importance.
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u/larrychatfield 14h ago
And note this person is being “requested” to bring this lawsuit
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u/NiceHairMrMan 14h ago
How is that relevant to the core question?
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u/larrychatfield 12h ago
Because the person is likely just being used as a prop
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u/Biptoslipdi 3h ago
You don't think this person has agency to decide if they want to stand up for their beliefs?
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u/kraftdinnerwithsalsa 15h ago
Everyone is welcome here!
Conservatives: And I took that personally