It seems not everyone is welcome in Idaho after the state’s attorney general ordered schools to prohibit signs that read “Everyone is Welcome Here” under a new state law.

H.B. 41, which went into effect July 1, bans the display of banners or flags in K-12 classrooms that represent “political, religious, or ideological views, including but not limited to political parties, race, gender, sexual orientation, or political ideologies.” Republican Raúl Labrador issued guidance on how schools should apply the law, determining that the policy applies even to vague messages promoting kindness. 

Labrador specifically referenced signs hung by Sarah Inama, a sixth grade history teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School who went viral in March after she revealed that Ada School District administration ordered her to remove signs in her classroom that read “In This Room, Everyone Is Welcome, Important, Accepted, Respected, Encouraged, Valued, Equal,” and “Everyone Is Welcome Here.”

“These signs are part of an ideological/social movement which started in Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump,” he wrote. “Since that time, the signs have been used by the Democratic party as a political statement. The Idaho Democratic Party even sells these signs as part of its fundraising efforts.”

The “movement” that began in Minnesota referenced by Labrador was a group of local moms who carried pastel signs that stated “All are Welcome Here” in protest of someone tagging their children’s high school with racist graffiti following Trump’s election, as reported by Kare11. Some local businesses also displayed the sign in solidarity, but it is not the same design or slogan as the one in Inama’s classroom, which instead featured a row of hands with varying skin tones.

Per Labrador’s guidance, even children’s artwork could be prohibited under the law “if it meets the statutory definitional criteria of a ‘banner,'” though there is “an exception for a ‘brief curriculum-based educational purpose’ display which may apply to
the artwork.”

After refusing to remove the signs for several weeks, Inama ultimately resigned. She told local station KTVB when the controversy first began that “I was told that ‘everyone is welcome here’ is not something that everybody believes. So that’s what makes it a personal opinion.”

“I don’t agree that this is a personal opinion,” she said. “I feel like this is the basis of public education.”