John Wallis hung the pride flag in his classroom at Neosho Junior High School, along with a sign that read “everyone is welcome,” in hopes that students would know they could always come to him for help.
“Within the first week, I had almost 10 students come up to me and personally thank me because they wouldn’t know where else to go if they hadn’t seen that flag,” Wallis told The Star via phone Tuesday.
But after complaints from parents about the flag, and after Wallis — a speech and debate, theater and world mythology teacher — was asked to sign a letter stating he would not discuss his sexuality with his students, Wallis resigned as a teacher at Neosho. He posted a thread on Twitter detailing what happened. Wallis said that having to sign the letter was the reason for his resignation.
The Neosho school district said it was limited in the information it could provide in a personnel matter.
Superintendent Jim R. Cummins said in a statement that Wallis was hired on Aug. 13 and he submitted his resignation on Sept. 1.
Wallis, 22, who grew up in Neosho and attended the junior high school, said he himself began questioning his sexuality when he was a student there. He was not openly gay until his senior year of college.
“I didn’t have any teachers that were openly accepting of LGBTQ+ students,” Wallis said. “And so for me, as an out educator in southwest Missouri, I know what my experience was and I didn’t want that to be the same experience for my students.”
Soon after he was hired, Wallis said he met with his school’s principal and assistant principal and asked them for permission to put up the pride flag and the sign saying, “In This Classroom EVERYONE is Welcome.”
“I left that meeting with the understanding that they had advised against it but not instructed me not to,” Wallis said.
So he put the flag in a bookshelf in his classroom and hung the sign over the whiteboard. It was important to him, he said, and he felt that was proven when students who identified as LGBTQ came to him privately.
“It showed me specifically that what my intention was with the flag was actually happening, that students could see that I am a safe person to come to,” Wallis said. “That spoke to me a lot for them to be able to come to me and say that. It meant that I was doing what I intended to do.”
It was in the first week of school when Wallis was called into the school’s main office. A parent had complained to the school about the sign and flag. The parent allegedly said that Wallis was going to teach their child to be gay, Wallis said. He took both the flag and the sign down. The following school day, his students asked him why.
He told them he was asked to take them down and that the flag and sign did not represent what he would teach in his class.
“But I followed it up by saying, ‘If you have a problem with the flag representing me, or students who identify as LGBTQ+, then you can probably find a different class,’” Wallis said. “That prompted more calls from parents to the superintendent, and I had to have the meeting with the superintendent the following day.”
At the meeting, Wallis said he was asked to sign the letter. The school district declined to comment.
Wallis shared the letter with The Star, which reads:
“If you are unable to present the curriculum in a manner that keeps your personal agenda on sexuality out of your narrative and the classroom discussions, we will ultimately terminate your employment.” The letter also said Wallis would not have any references to sexuality or gender displayed in his classroom.
“The problem I have with it, obviously, is that it’s specific to me, and as an openly gay man that seems a bit discriminatory because if you’re a straight teacher, you can talk about your spouse, your kids, you can have a picture of your family in the classroom, but I have a flag and then all of a sudden there’s a problem. You know, it didn’t make any sense,” Wallis said.
Since his resignation, Wallis has received messages of support. Missouri’s House Minority Leader Crystal Quade tweeted at Wallis thanking him for the dedication to kids. Wallis said he’s filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
“I want people to know that I’m not doing this because I hate Neosho,” Wallis said. “I’m doing this because we need to have policies in place, especially for public education that supports all of our students and all of our educators.”
*story by The Kansas City Star
