One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
A Proposed Flag Ban Gets Denied At North OC Community Colleges
A person waves a Pride flag on June 26, 2015 in San Francisco, California.
(
Justin Sullivan
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
The North Orange County Community Colleges District’s bout with a flag ban is over for now. The proposed resolution, which would have allowed only certain flags to be “flown, affixed or displayed” on district property didn’t get enough support after hours of public comment Tuesday night.
What happened? Trustee Ryan Bent, who introduced the resolution, didn’t get board support to bring the motion to a vote, which many saw as a way to stop the Pride flag from going up. As a result, the proposed flag policy failed in the meeting. Professors, students and staff showed up to the meeting and urged the board to deny the item.
How would the policy have changed things? It would have banned “religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group flags and banners” from being on display in the district. Only the American flag and a handful of other government and college flags would have been allowed. While the resolution didn’t explain what areas of display applied, Bent said after his motion failed that this was never about taking flags out of affinity spaces.
Who would it have affected? NOCCCD leads the Cypress and Fullerton colleges and a continuing education arm. According to board documents, there is no flag policy in place and requests to display flags are handled at the campus level. About 10% of NOCCCD students described themselves as LGBTQ+ in the 2022-2023 academic year.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
