Morgantown High students walkout to protest pride flag banning

MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) - Morgantown High students walked out of class today to protest the flags being banned in schools.

About 200 hundred students participated in the walkout Wednesday afternoon. It comes after the school district removed pride flags from Mon County Schools.

The move has caused a firestorm of controversy, including a protest at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting.

Mon County Superintendent Eddie Campbell says the flags were removed as part of district policy.

Zena Semans is a freshman at the school and participated in the walkout.

“We are here just to show that love is love and no matter who we love we are still people and should be able to show that,” Semans said.

Many students say the flag represents a safe space, regardless of their sexual orientation.

“I myself support LGBTQ, but I am straight. This is just a great thing. This is a nice thing going on out here. Why don’t we join the protest,” said 10th grader, Lillian Cordwell.

Many Morgantown residents were also at the walkout to show their support for the students.

Campbell says Mon County Schools has “no intent” of punishing any of the students involved in the walkout.

The students who participated were marked absent from the class they missed, but none will receive any sort of suspension or other disciplinary action, according to Campbell.

The Mon County Board of Education, as of now, has not expressed any interest in revisiting the decision to remove the flags but that could change at any time.

Campbell has directed their diversity team to look at solutions to help the students who say they’re uncomfortable coming to school feel comfortable, regardless of whether there are pride flags on display.

Copyright 2022 WDTV. All rights reserved.