When someone poops on a Pride flag, films it, and posts it on TikTok for the world to see, what do you do? Ban flags, obviously. At least, that’s what you do if you’re the Paso Robles Unified School District.
But not all flags. Just the really big ones, because those are the only flags that students want to film themselves defecating on. At first, the district thought it should ban any flag bigger than a 2 feet by 2 feet—you know, because the flag that Paso Robles High School students shit on was a 3-by-5-foot flag they’d ripped off a classroom wall.
Then, in an attempt to not seem as tone deaf as it actually is, the district reversed its decision on the size of flags it will allow in classrooms. Well—kind of. Those large 3-by-5-foot flags? They’re still banned.
But, Paso Superintendent Chris Dubost said, now 2-by-3-foot flags are a-OK!
Oh good. I’m sure that LGBTQ-plus students in the district are thrilled and feel supported by this superintendent, whose response to a student-organized forum against the district’s flag ban was that he was “impressed with the quality of the presentation the students made.”
Did he think they were going to suck? Got anything to say about students feeling like their district’s administration just doesn’t get it?
“As students, we’re exhausting ourselves fighting so hard against this, and they won’t listen to us and understand why it’s so important to us,” student Ava Hughes said. “We just want to be allowed what was taken from us.”
I am not impressed with the quality of Dubost’s response. Why was any size of flag banned? The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
A punishment that does fit the crime is what the city of San Luis Obispo did to the Natural Healing Center by stripping its permit to open a dispensary after the company’s founder and former CEO Helios Dayspring was charged and pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion!
Even though the company and its lawyers are insisting that reprobate Dayspring is “in no way involved” with the Natural Healing Center, it would seem that he has a hand in the would-be SLO dispensary’s security plan and continues to direct site architects—and the city of SLO knows about it.
“I want you to be aware of that so you understand how these continued statements that he has no connection are landing,” SLO City Attorney Christine Dietrick told Natural Healing Center attorney Randy Fox during a meeting on Oct. 15.
To which Fox responded that although Dayspring’s longtime girlfriend Valnette Garcia is the company’s CEO and would run the company’s SLO operations, Dayspring owns the dispensary building and would collect rent “just like if they rented any other space in SLO.”
“The rent is not dependent on the type of business that’s conducted there,” he told Dietrick.
Oh? It’s not?
But the Natural Healing Center would be renting space from the former founder of the company, who built the Natural Healing Center and all of its associated businesses from the ground up, who bribed public officials on the company’s behalf, who designed the building specifically as a dispensary for the Natural Healing Center, and who would continue to benefit from said company by receiving rent.
So it’s not really the same as renting any other space in SLO, is it?
It’s an arrangement that’s way more fishy than your standard, everyday rental agreement. Fishy, fishy, fishy.
Kind of like this whole redistricting process that the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is overseeing—redrawing the districts that as elected officials they would benefit from.
Well. We all know that only the majority of the board will be deciding on this county’s new supervisorial districts. It doesn’t really matter that 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson said that he was against any iteration of the redistricting map that divided “coastal voices.”
During the Oct. 26 redistricting hearing, he said he would vote against any redistricting effort that breaks up communities along the North Coast—his district. But that’s only one vote. Maybe two, if 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg joins him in dissenting. Those three conservative members of the Board of Supervisors hold a lot of power to do pretty much whatever they want to ensure their party’s control over the county for the next decade—whether the liberals like it or not.
They were eerily quiet during the Oct. 26 meeting, keeping their cards close to their chest and declining to discuss their thoughts on the current redistricting maps offered by county staff. They’re acting like they’ve got some last minute plan up their sleeves that they won’t reveal until it’s too late for anyone else to do anything about it.
I don’t trust ’em.
A lot could change with some of the maps offered up by county staff and the public. One of those maps, submitted by resident Richard Patten, takes District 2 and shrinks it down to Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, removing several of the coastal bergs, including the one that Gibson currently lives in (Cayucos), and giving it to Districts 1 and 3.
“It’s time for a change,” Patten said at the meeting.
Boy, it sure is time for the base of power in this county to change, but that’s not it. Δ
The Shredder is ready for some liberal shenanigans. Send ideas to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 7, 2021.
How about no flags? Aren’t children supposed to learn to read and write at school and not have their political ideologies instilled in them by a person who is not their parent?
Why do we need ANY flags on campus other than the all-inclusive American flag? Any political symbol is always going to generate negative pushback from those with opposing views, whether it is a rainbow flag or a MAGA banner. In this era of declining education, in which we are eliminating objective measurement of learning like the SAT because kids are doing so badly at it and are graduating semi-literate students, do we really need to de-emphasize learning in favor of indoctrination?
Can always rely on the New Times comment section to find a cesspool of bad takes.
You know what’s indoctrinating? Pledging allegiance to the American flag. Like many, I took pride in the pledge of allegiance. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the pledge itself, but the fact is we’re literally pledging allegiance to (1) the republic for which it stands and (2) one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. There are reasons why certain people would take exception to part of that. For example, the lack of secularism in “one nation under God,” a line that was added to the pledge in 1954. We have separation of church and state. Literally the first clause in the Bill of Rights states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” One could argue we’re pledging to an unresolved contradiction.
There’s also the fact that in politically trying times like these, we’re not one nation indivisible. That’s the goal but not the truth. If we were truly an indivisible nation, for example, why are people falsely classifying a group of Americans as mere “political ideology”? Human sexuality isn’t political. The LGBTQ+ flag, which is not representative of political party, is representative of a protected class of individuals who’ve been historically burdened by decades of systemic oppression.
And it’s a little ironic to cite the MAGA banner in a discussion on an “all-inclusive American flag.” According to a recent Yahoo News/YouGov Poll, two-third majority of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was stolen from the former president. The stubbornness and steadfast refusal to recognize the results of our safe and secure election, after dozens and hundreds of unsuccessful lawsuits challenging the results, is literally the anthesis to what our “all-inclusive” American flag represents. Believing and pushing lies to undermine the sanctity of our Republic in the name of MAGA runs afoul of exceptionalism our flag and pledge strive for.
But sure, let’s talk flag sizes.
Although I strongly agree with the position held by the LGBTQ students at Paso High, I don’t think displaying any flag, other than the American flag, is appropriate for the classroom. I say this because I have a such a negative reaction to the so-called “Blue Lives Matter” flag, which I see as racist. Students can make posters and banners to place on the walls and have, (surprise!) discussions/assemblies to address the student body when a serious incident like this occurs. Teachers and administrators should honor students’ various backgrounds by making a statement at the beginning of the year in support of diversity. The teacher and school should also make it very clear that negative actions will not be tolerated and what the punishment will be for participating in such incidents.