IRVING, Texas — The now-removed LGBTQ “safe space” stickers that prompted a student walkout at a North Texas high school will remain gone for now.

During its March 21 meeting, the Irving ISD school board held a level three employee grievance appeal where teachers and advisers for MacArthur High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) asked that those stickers be returned to classroom doors at the school.

MacArthur sophomore and GSA member Aly Harbin recalled the day, at the start of this school year, when she arrived at the school to find those safe space stickers gone. GSA members say they sponsored the stickers that most teachers in the school elected to put on their doors as a sign of support for LGBTQ students.

Harbin said despite never really hearing any hate for the stickers prior to that day, she was surprised when they were gone.

“They had been taken down and nobody had notified — as far as I know — the teachers. Definitely no one had notified the students,” said Harbin.

That was the beginning of the controversy.

In the days that followed the removal, several students reported that adviser to the GSA, Rachel Stonecipher, was no longer at MacArthur. A representative for the Irving ISD said they can’t comment on individual personnel matters but could only say that Stonecipher is still employed by the district. When speaking at the March 21 meeting, Stonecipher introduced herself to the board as now working at the "SRC," the abbreviation for the district’s Student Reassignment Center.

What happened to Stonecipher and the removal of the stickers prompted a student walkout at MacArthur High School on Sept. 22. It gained national attention for the topic at the center of the controversy.

Since then, Harbin and several of her classmates say the issue has gone fairly quiet, despite their quest for answers and a resolution on the matter. District officials confirm that the high school’s principal and a district representative met with GSA members to discuss the removal of the stickers, but members of the group said they felt their concerns fell on deaf ears.

“It feels like they’re just turning a blind eye. They just don’t really care,” said Harbin.

During the grievance hearing, Stonecipher and the other teachers speaking on behalf of the GSA said the stickers meant a lot to students in the LGBTQ community as a signal of support and safety.

“It meant a lot for them to be up and to feel a sense of safeness everywhere throughout the school cause they were basically everywhere,” Stonecipher told the board.

The speakers also pointed out that during a training on the topic for district leaders, experts recommended the use of symbols like the stickers on classrooms. They also pointed out that other symbolism, even religious symbolism, hasn’t been removed from classrooms.

But, Dennis Eichelbaum, the attorney for Irving ISD, told the board that the removal of the stickers was in line with district policy. 

In a statement from the district that was originally released at the time of the walkout, leaders stated that:

“To ensure that all students feel safe regardless of background or identity, the district has developed guidelines to ensure that posters, banners and stickers placed in classrooms, hallways or offices are curriculum driven and neutral in viewpoint.”

“While educators have the right to express their personal viewpoints on their personal time, Irving ISD policy EMB-local states that teachers shall not use the classroom to transmit personal beliefs regarding political or sectarian issues. Legislators and courts have consistently sided with school districts and upheld district protocols that require neutral expression in classrooms.”

Eichelbaum told the board that the district already has trained counselors to address any issues students may have, and address any concerns over student safety in line with district policy. However, he said the concern with the stickers was that the teachers displaying them wouldn’t have the proper training to handle those types of situations.

“We’re taking them down because they’re giving the wrong impression, they may be endangering students,” said Eichelbaum. “This is not an issue of whether or not the school is protecting all students, this is a grievance over a sticker and it’s important to understand that’s what this is about.”

Eichelbaum added other LGBTQ support displays, like rainbow flags, are still allowed in classrooms.

The school board ultimately upheld the removal of the stickers. A district representative said that grievance hearing is the highest level of appeal available through their process.

Harbin said the decision was certainly a disappointment, especially as she and other students close to the matter said the whole situation has actually led to a feeling of less safety for them around LGBTQ issues in the school.

“I have a rainbow sticker on my badge and I know some people, some teachers even who’ll say, ‘Why do you have that?’” said Harbin. “If students are coming to you telling you they feel unsafe and you just say, ‘Well, you should feel safe.’ OK, well, we don’t.”

Harbin and other GSA members said they plan to continue to speak up in attempts to get the stickers back, though their options are running thin.

“It’s not over until there’s justice,” she said.