University of Chicago’s (UChicago) Laboratory School has both enacted a new viewpoint-neutral education policy and refused to allow the Pride flag to be flown on the flagpole on school grounds in June this year.
The new policy has resulted in protests from students, parents and faculty who say it limits students’ exposure to a variety of topics. Detractors also say the policy hinders teachers’ ability to be inclusive and support marginalized students in their classrooms.
Flying the Pride flag was a student-launched initiative in 2022 and has taken place annually until this year.
The new viewpoint-neutral education policy comes after a long review process that began in 2025. Lab School Interim Director Ethan Bueno de Mesquita told Chicago Maroon “some of [the school’s] educational practices had strayed from the University’s enduring dedication to open inquiry.”
The finalized draft of the policy, titled “Standards for Viewpoint-Neutral Education in Support of Student-Centered Open Inquiry,” was released to faculty members and parents on April 2.
According to the policy, “The purpose of viewpoint-neutral education is not to limit inquiry or discourage engagement with difficult, important or contested topics. Rather, the goal is to ensure that Lab classrooms and school spaces remain … places where students can encounter, explore and evaluate important questions without being steered toward or away from particular conclusions by the authority of adults.”
The draft policy had more specific language targeting LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities. In the finalized policy, the only specific mention of LGBTQ+ people was in the FAQ that accompanied the policy.
The FAQ states that there are “competing vocabularies” on issues that they deem “contested question[s].” It also calls on educators to instruct their students to be respectful in the classroom, have “good-faith” debates and treat disagreements as “objects of inquiry.” Some examples of this included in the FAQ are “biological sex” versus “sex assigned at birth,” “illegal immigrant” versus “undocumented immigrant,” “riot” versus “uprising,” “unborn child” versus “fetus,” and “terrorism” versus “armed resistance.”
Lab School emerging senior student Clara Golley was made aware of the new policy when it was in its early stages from her mother, who is also a teacher at her school. Golley decided to hold a May Day protest in front of Blaine Hall during their lunch period to fight back against both it and labor issues in general. About 30 students showed up.
On May 15, dozens of UChicago faculty members, including those who send their children to the Lab School, and other parents held their own You Belong Here protest on the school grounds. Many wore shirts with the message “free teachers raise thinkers” and held up Progress Pride flags and signs with messages such as “love is love, neutrality enables hate, let our teachers advocate,” among others.
Additionally, UChicago’s chapter of the American Association of University professors led an effort where some faculty members gathered petition signatures opposing the new policy. They delivered the petition containing over 300 signatories to administrators during the May 15 protest.
According to Lab School parent Matt Martino, UChicago leadership has not responded to the contents of the petition. Martino also said Lab School leadership has been publicly silent about the new viewpoint-neutral policy outcry from parents, students and teachers.
Golley told this publication that she and other students, as well as teachers and parents, were also upset when they found out the Pride flag would not be flown outside on the flagpole this year. This promoted Golley and other students to raise awareness via multiple communication methods to the rest of the student body about the Pride flag issue.
To explain the Lab School’s decision regarding the Pride flag, Bueno de Mesquita sent an email to the parents which stated that it was not Pride-specific, Lab-specific or connected to the new viewpoint-neutral education policy. He said that his decision is rooted in the University practice of only flying the American flag from University flagpoles.
Bueno de Mesquita also said in the email that the Lab school has not changed its position in recognizing Pride Month which they do “through the Lab Honors program, at the divisional level, in the libraries and through student activities. When we were informed of the University’s practice concerning flagpoles, we shared that information with students and offered alternative opportunities for student recognition of Pride Month. To be clear, the full membership of LGBTQ+ people in the Lab community is not a contested issue. It is a core value.”
After parents received that email a group of them decided to organize Pride celebrations before and after school on June 1, Lab School parent Sam Goldberg said in a statement to this publication that they wanted to supplement the student response. “We wanted there to be extra support from the parent community so that LGBTQ+ kids know that they are loved and supported, and that we’re really proud of them. It has been a challenging year for these families at Lab. We’ve tried to express some things to the administration that have frustrated us, and we don’t feel like there’s been much movement on those.”
Golley told Windy City Times that the “Pride flag being taken down is the most visible thing that has happened to the queer/trans community at Lab since the neutrality policy. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to a lot of people but it’s so much more than that. It’s how people know that they belong, that they are loved, that they don’t have to be ashamed of their identities. Love, acceptance and belonging, Lab’s so called ‘core values,’ are not, have not, and will never be neutral.”
Lab School emerging junior student Morgan Shields said in a statement to this publication, “I think that the Pride flag should be up. because it helps LGBTQ students feel like themselves in an environment that can be hostile towards queer and trans students.”
When Windy City Times asked Lab School leadership about the new viewpoint neutral policy and specifically the language regarding “competing vocabularies” on a variety of topics including trans people, they referred the query to University of Chicago Public Affairs Director Gerald McSwiggan, who said the FAQ makes clear that, “Another person’s dignity and standing in the classroom community is not an object of debate.” He also said the new viewpoint-neutral policy encourages “respectful discussions” at the school.
Additionally, when asked about the decision to not fly the Pride flag on school grounds this year McSwiggan pointed to the letter Bueno de Mesquita sent to parents and said in an email statement to this publication, “The leadership of the Laboratory Schools has emphasized on multiple occasions that full membership of the LGBTQ+ community is a core value at Lab. Pride flags are commonly displayed at Lab, this month and throughout the year.”
McSwiggan also echoed what Bueno de Mesquita said about UChicago’s “longstanding practice that only the American flag is flown from University flagpoles” and added that “the Lab community engages in many other activities in recognition of Pride Month.”
A Lab Student Wellness survey in 2020 found that 48% of girls and 25% of boys (37% average) at the school are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. The data was published in the Lab School’s newspaper, u-high midway, on March 24, 2021.
