Idaho teacher sues over banned ‘everyone is welcome’ poster
Jaremy Yurow
(CN) — In 2021, Sarah Inama purchased a pack of motivational posters from an arts and crafts store and hung them in her sixth-grade classroom at Lewis & Clark Middle School in Meridian, Idaho.
One read, “in this room everyone is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued, equal.” Another featured hands in various skin tones, each containing a red heart, under the words “Everyone is Welcome Here.”
For more than three years, the posters hung without incident. Inama, who chaired the social studies department and was reportedly highly rated in supervisor evaluations, received no complaints from students, parents or administrators.
That changed in January 2025, when Idaho legislators introduced a bill to prohibit flags and banners expressing “ideological views” about race or politics in public schools.
On Tuesday, Inama filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, claiming school administrators directed her to take down the posters before the bill became law because the message of universal welcome was deemed a political viewpoint.
She initially complied. But after two nonwhite sixth-grade girls asked why the posters had been removed, she reconsidered. That weekend, she returned to her classroom and rehung them.
In an email to her principal, she says she told him she’d “lost quite a lot of sleep over this matter and have struggled with it deeply,” and “would die to know that any students felt like I had changed my stance.”
School administrators accused her of insubordination and called her in for meetings with district officials. In one such meeting, according to Inama, a school district administrator told her: “Political environments change. What may not have had a political message in the past could be one now. The moment we present a political or personal belief we violate the law … the color of the hands is crossing the political boundary.”
The case drew widespread attention. Between March 10 and March 25, West Ada reportedly received more than 1,200 emails about the posters. Students organized protests, and parents attended board meetings. When supporters drew hands of different colors on district office sidewalks with the message “Everyone is Welcome Here,” the district dispatched custodians to pressure-wash them away.
The legislation became law in March 2025 and is now codified. The statute prohibits the display of flags or banners representing “political, religious, or ideological views” in public schools.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador later issued guidance stating the “Everyone Is Welcome Here” poster violated the law. In an opinion published on the attorney general’s website and in an op-ed for Fox News, Labrador described the poster as “DEI messaging disguised as inclusion” that “mask[s] a comprehensive worldview that undermines parental authority over children’s moral development.”
Inama resigned in May 2025. In her resignation letter, she said she couldn’t align herself “nor be complicit with the exclusionary views and decisions of the administration.”
“It is extremely disturbing and embarrassing to see a district prioritize appeasing individuals with racist perspectives over celebrating the diversity and beauty of all our students,” she wrote.
She has since taken a teaching position at another Idaho school, where she continues to display the posters.
In her lawsuit, Inama names the Idaho State Board of Education, the Idaho Department of Education, Attorney General Labrador, and West Ada School District officials as defendants. She argues the law is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Idaho Constitution.
Inama also said that enforcement of the law has been inconsistent statewide. Boise School District, Idaho’s second-largest district, has publicly stated it will continue supporting teachers who display the posters.
Inama is represented by attorneys Elijah Watkins and Aaron Bell of Dorsey & Whitney LLP, as well as local attorneys Latonia Keith and McKay Cunningham. She seeks a declaration that the statute violates constitutional protections, injunctive relief preventing its enforcement against Inama, and damages for violations of her rights.
Representatives for West Ada School District, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, and the Idaho State Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment.