Since 2022, students have gathered each June in the Blaine Courtyard to raise a pride flag on the school flagpole. The practice of raising a pride flag to recognize LGBTQ+ people was started by lower school students, who advocated to school administrators. But that won’t happen this June. 

Lab’s administration announced that the pride flag couldn’t be raised in the central courtyard. Why not? The Kalven Report, the University of Chicago’s 1967 guiding policy document that requires institutional neutrality to guarantee student expression. The decision hinged on the distinction between institutional neutrality — the report’s focus — and student neutrality. Lab’s administration is concerned that anything flown on the flagpole could be interpreted as endorsed by the school.

The practice of raising the pride flag during Pride Month represents an ideal process of student expression. A group of students — now in high school — identified something meaningful to them, advocated through administrative channels and saw their efforts recognized. 

By limiting this marker of student expression, school leadership risks stifling the very expression it aims to protect. True neutrality isn’t achieved by erasing expression but by thoughtfully balancing designated zones for student voice. 

Spaces where students are able to express themselves flourish at U-High. In addition to our journalism classes and clubs like Ouroboros Literary Translation or Renaissance — all student organizations that publish student work— have been successfully running for years. During Social Justice Week, students encourage each other to question the equity and equality of systems that govern our society. Students and their organizations seized this opportunity, with 37 workshops this year. 

This assembly happened in a shared space, during the school day, with faculty advisers. Yet this is not considered a violation of institutional neutrality. So where’s the line between the institution speaking and students being heard? 

Students at Lab have a lot of opportunities for free expression — more than at most other schools. It’s understandable that visitors or people new to Lab would confuse this student expression with something the institution is endorsing. This ambiguity is real, and it’s reasonable to take it seriously. Yet the solution to this ambiguity cannot be limitations on student expression. 

The administration points to the possibility of designated student-display areas, spaces for student expression that would permit the exact type of expression that won’t be seen in the courtyard this June.

During the summer, the administration has the opportunity to protect and expand these spaces. Designating bulletin boards — or even installing a student-run flagpole — encourages student expression and makes clear whose expression it is.