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  Few speakers concerned about Pride flag One speaker during the meeting said he was concerned that the LGBTQ+ Pride flag being flown in a classroom could influence children, which he disagreed with. Another, Krista Stewart, said she thought the only flag that should be flown in classrooms is the American flag. Stewart added that she hopes “there’s a policy in place” regarding flying flags in Atascadero school classrooms. She may have been referencing the policy change that occurred in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District after a teacher at the high school displayed a Pride flag that then got torn down and defecated on in a toilet by a student. After the hateful September 2021 incident, which later made international headlines, the school district implemented a policy that limited flags flown in classrooms to 2 feet by 2 feet in size. The new Paso Robles policy sparked outrage by the community, and students organized a “Coming Out Against Hate” event where they shared stor...

  The majority of speakers showed support for the LGBTQ+ Pride flag being displaying in classrooms. Cheri Roben, a teacher at Monterey Road Elementary School in Atascadero, came out as gay for the first time publicly at the meeting with her wife in attendance.She said during her comments that she’d been in the closet for 26 years — afraid to be open about her sexuality for fear of harassment, intimidation and bullying from the school district and community. “What (Jen Pence) did meant something to me, enough for me to come here and reveal myself,” Roben said during the Tuesday meeting. “If that flag had been in a classroom when I was a student, or my wife or my two queer children, I cannot express to you what that would have meant to me to see that and know that I didn’t have to be afraid of somebody screaming at me across the quad. ... So you may think what you do about that flag, but you have no idea what it really means. It means that I don’t have to be afraid.” A junior at Atas...