It hurt Santa Ynez Valley Union High School senior Vera Sieck to see the school paint over a temporary rainbow-painted crosswalk she and fellow students proposed for an inclusion week at school.
“I honestly took it really hard. It has not been easy growing up queer in the valley. This was the first public show of support I had received from the school, because, largely, student administration and student behavior has been indifferent at best,” she said.
As co-president of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), Sieck worked with her peers in other clubs like the school’s Organization of Latinos and Americans club and Black Student Union to come up with a week of events that promoted inclusivity, diversity, and education through No Place for Hate: an anti-bullying nonprofit that works at schools nationwide to help create a more inclusive environment for students through events, assemblies, or classroom activities, she said.
“In one of those meetings, we proposed painting the crosswalk rainbow to say this place is a safe place. We went through the proper administration channels to get this approved on a higher level,” she said.
Ramsey Asphalt Construction temporarily painted the crosswalks on March 24 and the company was slated come back a week later to repaint them, she said. This approval was a “huge deal,” since the Solvang City Council rejected a similar proposal in February.
“The Monday night of No Place for Hate week—the 27th—I spoke at a City Council meeting asking them to rethink their decision to not put up rainbow crosswalks and I cited the school as an obvious support,” Sieck told the Sun.
During the March 27 Solvang City Council meeting, Sieck told the dais that being able to see such visible support means a lot to her because inadequate representation can often feel isolating.
“In order to champion change, it’s important to be at the forefront and to be deliberate with your messaging,” Sieck said at the meeting.
The next day, March 28, the GSA hosted its lunchtime celebration, and an hour later the crosswalk was repainted white—closing down the entire parking lot 30 minutes before school got out.
“We were shocked, disappointed, and upset to see it taken away so publicly,” Sieck said. “To me, it felt like they were trying to get rid of it before Wednesday night [March 28], which was Open House.”
The principal, Michael Niehoff, said in an email to the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District that the school received many perspectives on what painting the crosswalk meant for the community.
“We agree that our schools should not be politicized or used for outside agendas that cause division or disrupt school activities. We remain committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all students and will continue to seek ways to include the diverse perspectives of our community in future activities,” Niehoff said in his email.
Niehoff told the Sun in an email that he’s aware of the unique challenges that LGBTQ-plus students face at the school and outside of the school and gave administrative permission for the crosswalk to be painted. He added that he’s been meeting with the GSA and other student organizations and is aware that the recent decision has left many feeling “disappointed, sad, and let down.”
“I recognize the importance of the high school being a welcoming and supportive place for all students. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances surrounding the recent events in Solvang with rainbow crosswalks, the high school was unintentionally pulled into an issue that has divided the community,” he said in the email. “I have encouraged our students to continue to work on ways to move forward positively and will continue to work to find ways to do better and to do what’s right for all students.”
Adults in the public Facebook group, Santa Ynez High School Administration/School Board Transparency Project, praised and criticized the school’s decision in a series of posts with more than 160 comments.
“Nobody’s hating anybody’s identity. In fact, the discrimination of LGBT has long … been over. I know that community has more support than most groups of people,” group member Jesse Taylor commented. “Simply put we can all love and respect one another however, ideologies don’t need to be crammed down another person’s throat.”
Fellow group member Erica Christine said this event was led by the students and the comments were “attacking” the students.
“It’s shameful what adults are willing to do to these students who just want to be loved and accepted for who they are,” Christine said. “They literally painted over the symbol meant to tell them they are love[d] and accepted.”
Following the school’s decision to paint over the crosswalk, Sieck told the Sun, several groups pulled out of No Place for Hate week in solidarity with GSA, and that she never received a complaint from any high school student about the crosswalk. Now, students plan to attend the April 18 Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District board of trustees meeting to express how this decision impacted the students.
“I believe the decision to paint the crosswalks was due to parent pushback and not student pushback,” Sieck said. “I think the school board hearing what the students have to say on this will moderately affect what the school board thinks of a situation like this.”
This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2023.