Pride sign removed from Westwood, NJ school

🏳‍🌈 School officials ordered the removal of an LGBTQ pride sign in Westwood

🏳‍🌈 Westwood has been the site of conflict over LGBTQ policies

🏳‍🌈 On-line petition has over 1,000 signatures

An online petition in support of displaying an LBGTQ lawn sign outside Westwood Regional Middle School has over 1,200 signatures and counting this morning.

The campaign was launched by senior Mackenzie Fox after the school ordered the sign removed shortly after it was placed last week.

In her change.org petition, Fox claims the sign was removed "because of pushback," but did not say from whom.

A part of the LGBTQ community and a student representative to the school board, Fox told NorthJersey.com that school officials told her in an email that a sign is the same as a flag, and only U.S. and state of New Jersey Flags are permitted to be displayed on school property.

School officials ordered the removal of a pride sign from the lawn of the local middle school.
Photo credit: Mackenzie Fox

Fox and others in the community have taken issue with that view, and are urging interim Schools Superintendent Kenneth Rota to reconsider that decision.

"This sign is the first step to us being a truly inclusive and welcoming community," Fox wrote on her petition.

She also claims the school principal are supportive of the signs.

Westwood, in Bergen County, is one of many districts in New Jersey where discussion about New Jersey's sex education curriculum and regulations dealing with gender policy have drawn loud opinions from members of the public.

In May, the school board appointed a committee to review how the district will implement both policies.

Crowds of concerned parents and members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters have turned out at school board meetings to let their feelings be known.

Neither Rota or any member of the school board have commented on the lawn sign issue publicly.

What does Gov. Phil Murphy's administration say schools can and cannot do when it comes to gender identity policy? That's the topic of Eric Scott's latest "Asked and Answered Column."

Click below to read what the official state policy says and does not say.

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