After Palestinian flag is removed from Skokie classroom, community speaks out

A Skokie school district has responded to an outpouring of “concerns and statements of advocacy” from its staff and community after a Palestinian flag was removed from a middle school classroom earlier this school year. 

The flag was part of a “teacher-directed, community-building classroom activity” in which the instructor and her students created flags to represent their identities, said Skokie School District 68 Superintendent Scott Grens during a Jan. 15 board meeting. 

According to the district and those in the classroom, the class’s teacher made the Palestinian flag as a reflection of her identity and it was removed prior to the other flags created for the lesson.

Grens, who was hired in 2024, commented on the removal in a statement shared with district families: “As the activity has concluded and is no longer instructionally relevant, the teacher’s flag has been removed and the student-created flags have been scheduled for removal.”

(Click here to read Grens’ full statement.)

Following the backlash over the flag and its removal, Grens announced Jan. 15 that the district will create a new committee of district administrators and teachers to review classroom displays, deciding if they are “age-appropriate, educationally meaningful, and aligned with the District’s commitment to serving all students.”

Nineteen people — who identified themselves as either Old Orchard Junior High teachers, parents or students — spoke on Jan. 15 in support of the teacher who reportedly displayed the Palestinian flag, Maram Mustafa, a math teacher in her second year in the middle school.

Speakers repeatedly said that Mustafa is a well respected, “not controversial” teacher who is beloved by her students. 

A copy of Grens’ statement, distributed to parents and members of the D68 community via a Jan. 16 board brief, said: “No disciplinary action is associated with this matter.”

Grens did not respond to The Record’s request for more information on the concerns the district received about the flag. The Record also asked how and when the flag was removed.

Flags, emails and a meeting

Carter Cleveland-Lax, an eighth-grade student at Old Orchard Junior High, said Mustafa introduced the flag-creating activity during the first week of school in August.

Mustafa, said Cleveland-Lax, brought a plastic Palestinian flag for the get-to-know-you activity. 

The student made a flag representing her American and Nigerian identity, and her peers created flags in line with their own identities. The teacher’s flag reportedly hung on a bulletin board behind her desk.

Matt Tomenillie, co-president of the local teacher’s union for D68, said he shares a classroom with Mustafa in his capacity as a special education co-teacher. He recalled seeing the Palestinian flag in the classroom and described it as relatively small, about the size of a MacBook laptop. The students’ flags were smaller, he said, about half the size of standard pieces of paper. 

Documents The Record obtained from a public-records request show Grens emailed Mustafa on Dec. 9 to inform her that he had been “contacted” the previous week “by two community members who shared concerns regarding the display of a flag in your classroom.”

Grens asked Mustafa to meet so he could share the concerns and “discuss the situation,” but he emphasized that the meeting would not be disciplinary. 

Grens said he wanted to know more about the activity that led Mustafa to displaying the flag on her bulletin board — what were the “learning intentions or objectives” associated with the activity, and “What complexities exist related to this activity for our students, our staff, and our community?”

Flag activity ‘should not be used in the future’

In a Dec. 17 email to Mustafa, Grens thanked her for “engaging in a thoughtful and professional conversation” on Dec. 11 and summarized the meeting.

Grens said the two reviewed how Mustafa’s classroom flag activity intended to support learning goals aligned with the district policy on Student Social and Emotional Development concerning “student self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills”; however, he said they also reviewed another policy on Teaching About Controversial Issues and discussed the importance of “remaining attentive to the varied emotional responses students may experience during identity-based activities.”

(View the District 68 Policy Manual)

Grens wrote: “I shared my perspective that for some students – including those who may be orphans, refugees, or who have family connections to nations or regions with complex histories or ongoing conflict – the lesson objective of ‘building a sense of belonging and trusting relationships’ through a limited focus on ‘cultural identities and national heritages,’ as represented by national flags in the activity, may unintentionally evoke feelings of vulnerability, confusion, or distress.”

“This can occur even when the instructional intent is supportive, particularly when compared to approaches that allow students to express personal identity through individual artifacts or collages rather than national or cultural symbols,” Grens continued.

After the meeting, Grens said he conducted additional research on the topic and “determined this flag activity, in its current form, should not be used in the future.” He clarified again that his guidance “is not disciplinary in nature.”

On Jan. 9, Grens emailed Mustafa a request to “update your classroom environment by removing all student-designed and teacher-selected flags currently displayed in the math classroom” and encouraged her to shift toward “visual supports that closely align with the Illinois Learning Standards.”

Tomenillie said he noticed on Tuesday, Jan. 13, that the Palestinian flag was no longer in the classroom; however, it was not until the following week, on Thursday, Jan. 22, said Cleveland-Lax, that the students in class were instructed to remove their flags.

‘Where you come from isn’t controversial’

Cleveland-Lax said the experience of seeing her and her classmates’ flags taken down left her feeling “disrespected” and that her “voice does not matter in my school community.” 

In response, she drafted an online petition (600-plus signatures by press time) with her classmate Blake Sullivan that calls on the D68 Board of Education to “reverse (the) decision and adopt policies that celebrate diversity by allowing the display of cultural flags and symbols in the classroom.” 

Rory Fanning, a D68 resident with a child at Old Orchard Junior High, said Skokie is known for its diversity and inclusion and that he attended the Jan. 15 board meeting because he was upset to hear about what he believed was “discrimination.” 

“I feel like this is very damaging to our community and an embarrassment that our district would move forward under this kind of pressure campaign like this,” Fanning said, adding that he wanted to know when the School Board has stepped in to remove classroom projects in the past. 

Tomenillie said this situation was the most politically charged moment he could recall in his 23 years teaching in D68; he believed the best outcome would be if the board communicated publicly that they understood the concerns of the teachers, parents and students, and rethought the decision to remove the flags.

“This is not a controversial subject. Where you come from isn’t controversial,” he said. “… If you’ve got a flag from your home country, I don’t think it’s controversial in any way shape or form.”

‘A mirror for her students’

Tomenillie added that he is waiting on details about the district’s new classroom-display committee as he would likely serve on it as a union representative. 

The Committee for Guidance on Displays in the Learning Environment will meet outside of the instructional days to “develop guidance that distinguishes among school-sponsored speech, personal expression, and student expression,” Grens said. 

“This Committee is not intended to censor nor suppress identity, but rather to foster inclusivity and provide guidance for staff as we continue to foster a community of belonging,” the superintendent said. 

On Jan. 15, Mohammed Hussain, an Old Orchard Junior High teacher, told the board that he understands the importance of classroom standards and curricular focus, but the district should reflect on whether it’s leaving room for “the human connections that make learning possible.”

“Maram is a well respected and trusted colleague and it’s safe to say that she had no intention of controversy or any other ill intent. She intended to be a mirror for her students, especially those of Palestinian descent,” Hussain said. 

“Our strategic plan names cultural responsiveness, equity and inclusion as one of its core objectives. Moments like this ask us to consider what those commitments look like in practice when they are tested.”

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