Idaho education officials violated both the U.S. Constitution and state law when they pressured a public school teacher to remove a classroom banner reading “Everyone Is Welcome Here,” according to a new federal lawsuit filed this week.
The suit was brought by Sarah Inama, a former sixth-grade teacher at Lewis & Clark Middle School in Meridian, who alleges that administrators with the West Ada School District ordered her to take down the banner in early 2025 after years of it hanging in her classroom without complaint.
The banner featured a simple message of inclusion alongside illustrated hands in different skin tones. According to the complaint, school officials told Inama the sign expressed “an opinion that not everyone agrees with,” as the district prepared for the passage of HB 41 — a new Idaho law banning most political or ideological displays in classrooms.
Inama said she pushed back, telling her principal that the reasoning “sounds racist.” He allegedly replied, “I know it’s a bummer.”
Although Inama initially removed the sign, she later returned it to her classroom after students questioned why it was gone. In an email to her principal, she wrote that she would “die to know that any students felt like I had changed my stance.”
District officials responded by accusing her of insubordination, the lawsuit claims. During a Feb. 13 meeting, a senior administrator allegedly argued that even the color of the hands on the banner crossed a political line, explaining that “what may not have had a political message in the past could be one now.”
The dispute quickly drew national attention. In March 2025, students, parents, and community members staged a “Chalk the Walk” protest outside district offices, recreating imagery from the banner to show support for Inama.
By May, Inama resigned.
“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 in her resignation letter.
The lawsuit names the Idaho State Board of Education, the Idaho Department of Education, Attorney General Raúl Labrador, and district officials as defendants. It seeks damages and a declaration that HB 41 violates constitutional protections for free speech.
Labrador has publicly defended the law, arguing in a Fox News op-ed that classroom displays like Inama’s sign represent “woke” indoctrination and part of a broader left-wing political movement tied to opposition to President Donald Trump.
Civil liberties advocates have sharply criticized HB 41. The American Civil Liberties Union has compared the law to censorship, warning it suppresses basic expressions of inclusion under the guise of neutrality.
Inama said she bought the banner in 2021 as part of a pack of motivational classroom materials, alongside messages emphasizing respect, acceptance, and equality — values she argues should never have been controversial.
Her case now stands as a major test of how far states can go in restricting classroom speech, and whether messages of inclusion can legally be treated as political ideology.
