Sonoma Valley High School freshman Maizey Cotner speaks during public comment at the Jan. 26 Sonoma City Council meeting, urging city leaders to support LGBTQ+ students and the continued flying of the Pride flag on campus. (City of Sonoma)

The Pride flag at Sonoma Valley High School was only down for a few hours. But for the students who spoke at the Jan. 26 Sonoma City Council meeting, the damage was already done.

What should have been an unremarkable school day turned into something else entirely when school board member David Bell ordered the flag removed—without a board vote, without public notice, and without an explanation at the time. By Friday afternoon, the flag was back up. By Monday night, the council chambers were full.

Student after student stepped to the microphone to say the same thing in different ways: the flag wasn’t decoration, it wasn’t politics, and it wasn’t symbolic fluff. It was a signal of safety. Taking it down—even briefly—sent the opposite message.

Madeline, a member of the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, reminded council that the flag first went up in 2019 after student organizing led by then-senior Jose Valdiva, in response to persistent bullying of

LGBTQ+ students.

“This feeling of acceptance quickly dissipated,” she said, when the flag was removed. Bell later claimed the issue was that the Pride flag was the only flag flown on campus, but Madeline wasn’t buying it.

“If it were really about the Pride flag being the only flag flown, he would have decided to put up other flags on Friday,” she said. “Instead, he took ours down.”

“At a time of increasing politicization of my community,” she continued, “I call upon you to protect LGBTQ+ students in Sonoma. We are members of your community. We are your neighbors. And we are the leaders of tomorrow.”

Kimberly Torres, a junior, said she learned the flag was coming down and felt “mad, upset, and in disbelief.”

“Yes, it’s back up now,” she said. “But the anger and sadness we feel is still here.”

She pushed back hard on comparisons made between the Pride flag and banners for sports teams or clubs.

“They don’t get slurs thrown at them,” she said. “They don’t get laughed at just for being who they are.”

Sophomore Logan Taylor didn’t mince words. He called the decision “regressive” and said it made him ashamed of his hometown.

“California is supposed to be progressive,” he said. “And yet one of our educational leaders decided to remove the rainbow flag from our high school.”

“The damage has been done,” he added. “This will be a stain on our town’s history.”

Maizey Cotner, a freshman who described herself as both Catholic and LGBTQ+, warned against treating the flag’s removal as a minor misstep.

“No small action ever ends without taking it further,” she said. “If trust matters between students and leaders, then one person shouldn’t be able to jeopardize that and make us feel unwanted.”

Adults who followed made clear this wasn’t theoretical.

Lisa Stormont, president of Wake Up Sonoma and the parent of a transgender son, spoke about how hard high school had been for him.

“The environment was not gentle or supportive,” she said. “Support from the school was minimal at best.”

She reminded council that the flag went up in 2019 after students pushed back against homophobia and rising mental health crises.

“For a school board president—entrusted with the mental health of our youth—to take it down without notice or explanation, as an ‘experiment’ to see how students would react,” she said, “was callous, irresponsible, and wrong.”

Judy Rado of El Verano cut to the core of the argument.

“To equate a Pride flag with extracurricular banners is a misunderstanding of purpose,” she said. “We support athletes and scholars for what they do. We fly the Pride flag because of who students are.”

“When a student sees that flag,” she added, “they’re seeing a promise: you are safe here. You are seen. You don’t have to hide.”

Judah White, a sophomore, said that promise mattered.

“The Pride flag was part of why I felt comfortable coming out,” he said. “Taking it down would have taken away my ability to feel safe in my own school.”

Belinda Head, a longtime Sonoma resident, closed public comment with gratitude.

“I never saw a Pride flag growing up,” she said. “What these young people showed tonight is extraordinary. They are exactly the kind of leaders this community should be proud of.”

The city council can’t tell the school district what to do. Everyone in the room knew that. But one councilmember asked that the issue be formally agendized for a future meeting, with the goal of discussing a city resolution supporting LGBTQ+ students and the continued flying of the Pride flag at the high school.

“These students attend school within city limits,” the councilmember said. “It’s important that we show support.”

City staff said they would bring the item back at a later date.