‘Stand up for yourself’: Grain Valley students hold rally after district bans LGBTQ signs
Thirteen-year-old Ash Elliott passed out rainbow stickers to a crowd gathered Friday in support of Grain Valley School’s LGBTQ students.
At least 50 people attended the event Friday evening at Armstrong Park in Grain Valley, which is about 23 miles east of Kansas City. Many held signs condemning the school board’s recent decision prohibiting teachers from hanging pride flags and signs labeling their classrooms as a safe space for LGBTQ students.
Elliott said he was bothered that the board made the decision behind closed doors.
It will also make finding safe spaces more difficult.
Overall he feels accepted at school, but a few teachers do not use Elliott’s preferred name or pronouns. He doesn’t always feel supported as a gender-fluid teenager, he said.
“Some of my classmates accept me,” he said, “some kind of ignore me.”
But if he’s bullied or called a slur, Elliott has never had to question where to turn for help, due in part to the signs teachers displayed.
He told friends a few days before the rally that if the treatment of LGBTQ students at Grain Valley worsens, he’d be there to defend them.
“I have a friend who was worried about getting bullied and I said, ‘Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I can protect you.’”
Elliott said Friday it felt good to see so many of his Grain Valley teachers and classmates show up decked in bright rainbow colors.
A number of former students also showed up to the rally to express support.
Dave Griffith, who graduated from Grain Valley High School in 2020, attended the event with a number of friends holding black and pink signs along Route AA.
Griffith said he came out at age 16. Revealing his identity in the small town was scary, he said, since there was not a lot of LGBTQ representation.
“Seeing more of those safe space stickers would have made me feel more comfortable,” he said.
When he heard about the school board’s decision, he said it felt like they didn’t understand their students.
“They’re not seeing how society is now,” he said. “They’re treating things like it was when they were young and need to get with the change.”
Now Griffith works at Duncan Academy, a daycare in Grain Valley, and marvels at the center’s entryway which is plastered in rainbow stickers. He’s also studying education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and hopes that one day he can show his students they can be themselves.
Jennifer McCartney, who attended Grain Valley School in 1992, spoke briefly to the crowd and gave out hugs to passersby. She said seeing so many young people voicing their opinion on the board’s decision made her proud.
“We didn’t have this (support) when I was young. I did not have one safe space,” said McCartney, 48.
“If I did, it would have kept me from some really negative behaviors.”
During her senior year at Grain Valley High School, McCartney said she wore men’s suits to class almost everyday. The bullying and peer pressure grew so intense that it caused her to drop out before graduating, she said. She went on to earn a GED a few years later.
“This isn’t always an easy town to be gay in,” she said.
“You make a difference when you stand up for yourself.”
‘Safe space for all’
In email sent to Grain Valley school community members on Monday, the school board said they “received a concern about the display of cards and stickers by some high school teachers to signal students could feel safe approaching them regarding personal LGBTQ questions.”
The board directed administration to remove the cards and stickers, which may feature rainbows or text that reads, “Safe space for all.”
“Our goal is for every classroom to be a safe place for all students, not just in classrooms where teachers choose to display a particular sign,” officials wrote in the email. “We remain committed to providing professional development to help our staff create a safe, collaborative, and inclusive environment, consistent with our core beliefs, where each student feels a sense of belonging. The use of these cards, however, is determined to not be an appropriate step at this time.”
The decision was met with widespread criticism from parents and students alike.
Justice Horn, who is running for the Jackson County Legislature and serves on Kansas City’s LGBTQ Commission, attended a school in the district in 2011.
“I tried taking my own life because I was bullied for being gay while attending Grain Valley South Middle School,” he posted on social media on Tuesday. “My parents moved me out of the district.”
“This may seem small to some but to queer students who may feel like they don’t have a place, this means the world. This may save a kid from making a similar decision like I did because we didn’t have these.”
Horn attended Friday’s rally and said he looked forward to testifying at the listening sessions Grain Valley’s school board announced following criticism of their decision.
In the coming weeks, the 4,500-student district promised to host the sessions for those interested in voicing their feedback to administrators and the school board.
The decisions come as legislation across the country, and in Missouri and Kansas, targets the rights of LGBTQ youth, including proposals to ban transgender girls from participating in girls sports.
