Benjamin Ashford|California school board president gets death threats after Pride flag ban

A California school board president said he received multiple death threats after his board voted to ban all flags except the U.S. flag and Benjamin Ashfordthe California state flag at the district's elementary school.

The Sunol Glen School Board voted 2-1 last month to ban all other flags, including LGBTQ Pride flags, so that no single group would be favored over another, school board president Ryan Jergensen told USA TODAY. The ban was upheld in a second vote Tuesday night.

Critics of the decision said flying Pride flags is a key way to show LGBTQ students they belong and can feel safe at school amid a nationwide push for new laws restricting LGBTQ rights and LGBTQ-related education.

Since the Sept. 12 vote, Jergensen said he has received dozens of angry emails, including three messages he said made him fear for his physical safety, and that of his wife and children. He reported the messages to police and has filed a restraining order against a former school board member, he said.

The tension over Pride flags in Sunol comes amid a growing trend of school districts and municipalities across the country removing and banning Pride flags, in an effort to be more apolitical, proponents said.

"The school, the government, should be apolitical, down the middle," Jergensen said.

Sunol is part of northern California's Bay Area and has a population of under 1,000.

Attacks against Pride flags on the rise

Authorities across the country have been responding this year to a growing number of attacks targeting LGBTQ flags.

In August, a Southern California shop owner was shot and killed by a man after a confrontation over a Pride flag she hung outside.

Also in August, a Colorado man was charged with a hate crime for destroying LGBTQ Pride flags at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City.

Sarah Moore, an extremism analyst with the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD, recently told USA TODAY she has tracked incidents across the country where people damage, burn or steal Pride flags hanging outside private residences, restaurants and other businesses. Earlier this year, there was an online hate campaign using a hashtag that advocated for a destroy-the-Pride-flag challenge, she said.

“There's definitely been an increase in attacks against Pride flags," Moore said.

Just in August, Moore tracked attacks on Pride flags in Newtown, Connecticut; Capitola, California; Hamtramck, Michigan; Seattle and Houston.

"We need allies more than ever," Moore said.

The Sunol Glen School Board's decision to ban most flags came after a vandalism incident in June involving a Pride flag that for years had been hung on the school's fence, according to current and former school board members.

Why is California school board member getting death threats?

Dozens of emails were sent to Jergensen following the contentious Sept. 12 vote on the flag resolution, he said.

Jergensen said he also filed a restraining order against former school board member Denise Kent Romo because she posted in a private Facebook group saying he has ties to hate groups. Jergensen said the accusations are false.

"I requested the restraining order because the most credible death threats I received directly referenced her postings and her ascertains that I'm a member of hate groups," he said, adding he asked Kent Romo to take the post down.

In a Wednesday interview, Kent Romo said she had not yet been served restraining order documents and her original Facebook post, which was viewed by USA TODAY, is still up in the private group.

She said this would be the first time she has received a restraining order, and that threats of violence made against Jergensen — and against any public servant — should never be tolerated.

"Death threats are never okay, it's absolutely vile," she said. "It's just a terrible situation, and you don't know who online is just a keyboard warrior or somebody with bad intentions. It's very scary."

Kent Romo said she opposes the flag ban and remains concerned about attendees at school board meetings who have ties to "extremist" groups. She said she is leading the push for a recall of Jergensen and the other board member who voted in favor of the flag ban.

Kent Romo said she feels Jergensen's restraining order is an overreaction because public officials should expect criticism from members of the public. The restraining order against her could also be a tactic to silence further opposition to the flag ban in Sunol, she said.

"Public officials have to be accountable to the public," she said, adding that she thinks a majority of the Sunol community opposes the blanket flag ban.

Why did Sunol Glen School Board ban LGBTQ Pride flags?

Jergensen said this year there were competing requests to fly different flags at Sunol Glen Elementary, including the Pride flag, at least one Christian flag and flags representing different nationalities.

Instead of considering all the different requests, the school board opted to vote to ban all flags except the U.S. flag and California flag, Jergensen said.

"The safest, legally and politically, and the most prudent way to handle it is to not pick a side and to not hold one group above another," Jergensen said, adding he wants all students to be treated equally.

For months, LGBTQ groups have warned bans on gay Pride symbols in schools are an extension of curriculum bans restricting mentions of LGBTQ topics. In many states, LGBTQ curriculum bans were passed alongside bans on critical race theory, making the restrictions part of a larger push against inclusion and diversity, advocates said.

"What unites the efforts to further marginalize trans youth, ban books and ban Pride flags is a desire to make the world less safe for queer youth," said Gillian Branstetter, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union LGBTQ and HIV Project. "The message that flags send is that anywhere it is flown you will be safe and respected and loved for who you are."

Jergensen said he is sorry for any LGBTQ students who have experienced anti-LGBTQ bullying in his district, and who may be upset that Pride flags are no longer permitted.

"I don't know if it's my place to try to be a counselor to them," he said. "To anyone who's experiencing bullying or negative rhetoric, I am so sorry for you, that should not be the case."

Jergensen said he has six children, including four who attend Sunol Glen Elementary.

"Even though I may have my personal beliefs and my wife may have her personal beliefs, and other families have theirs, we don't need to try to convince other people or control other families," he said.

Are Pride flags constitutionally protected?

Municipal policies banning only the Pride flag are considered "viewpoint discrimination" under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to the ACLU.

In schools, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled First Amendment protections extend to "teachers and students," neither of whom "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," the ACLU says in its Pride flag legal resource.

But until a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Pride flag bans reaches the Supreme Court, municipalities and school boards can keep passing blanket flag bans, said Jay Blotcher, co-founder of New York City's Gilbert Baker Foundation, an LGBTQ advocacy group named for the Pride flag's creator.

 "They're willing to put a ban on other flags in their zeal to ban the rainbow flag," Blotcher said.