Rainbow flag
In Bedford, the rainbow flag still hangs at the John Glenn Middle School despite a protracted fight in the town that mirrored the hard-fought culture wars that raged across the country this election year.
The flag -- which is a symbol of gay pride -- survived howls of protest from some in town and an official complaint to the state Department of Education. And, although the 50 or so school parents opposed to it have lost their battle to take down the flag, they have vowed to continue to fight anything in the school system that they see as an endorsement of a gay agenda.
''For myself and many, many, many parents, the issue has never been resolved," Pam Clare said. ''What the flag brought to the attention of many parents in Bedford is that there is a homosexual agenda being promoted in schools, not only in Bedford but all across Massachusetts."
At the same time, school officials say the flag and other attempts to tell gay students that they can safely attend Bedford schools teach all students about tolerance. There is no gay agenda, they say.
''It was part of a respect tolerance and appreciation project and will continue to be," Superintendent Maureen LaCroix said. ''I expect it to hang as long as the project is viable in school."
The episode started rather quietly with a seeming low-key student project at the school. Following a November 2003 Diversity Day observance, students collected money to buy flags to represent cultures from around the world. When the flags went up in January, they included a large rainbow-colored flag, which was labeled the ''Gay Pride Flag.'
As news of the flag spread through the community, some parents along with others complained to school officials that the rainbow flag was inappropriate, did not fit in with the diversity theme, and was meant to promote a pro-gay agenda.
At a packed public hearing in March, opponents demanded that the flag be taken down. But others defended it, saying the flag was a reflection of tolerance and of the school system's goal of making life at school safe for any student.
School officials changed the label of the flag to ''Freedom Flag." They reduced it to a size that matched the other flags and removed it from the school entrance to another hallway.
But opponents were not satisfied. A couple with two students in the middle school asked the state Department of Education in July to order the flag taken down because the couple was never notified that the flag was going up. The department ruled in July that the placement of the flag was within the school's curriculum guidelines and could stay.
But rainbow flag opponents persisted. They boycotted this November's Diversity Day by keeping their children home from school. And they are fighting the placement of placards with pink triangles on school doorways that are meant to remind students that the school is a safe zone for gays.
Declared LaCroix: ''We've had them in our schools since 1998 and they will stay."
DENISE DUB 