BLM in School- Allowed?

Hello all. I am an elementary teacher in Texas. We have been teaching our students online for 3 weeks now. I created my virtual classroom and I use my bitmoji to add a personal touch. My bitmoji tshirt includes the phrase “Black Lives Matter”. It’s very subtle, but I want to show my students I care. Recently a parent was concerned about my “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt and told the higher ups in the district it upset him. I was asked to change my bitmoji shirt and remove any traces of The phrase BLM from my google classroom. I was so upset. I understand that as teachers we cannot post our political opinions, however the Office of Special Counsel deemed BLM not a partisan political group for Hatch Act purposes back in July. Even though teachers are not bound to these same rules, it still frustrates me that when other major organizations such as the Office of Special Counsel deem BLM at work being okay, my school is not about it. They want parents to be comfortable. I see teachers and schools across the us having BLM week or wearing shirts and posting it onto their school sites but I cannot participate.

Is telling a teacher to take down BLM bitmoji shirt because it is “political” allowed? If so, Does anyone have any advice for what I can tell my admin team about the frustrations of my situation? Or advice on where to go from here?

Submitted September 02, 2020 at 11:54PM by FantasyDance https://ift.tt/2EJ9fDl