High schools have a lot in common. They have libraries, gymnasiums, and classrooms. Most have some sort of cafeteria. And almost all high schools have a flagpole, proudly displaying the American flag.
Sonoma Academy is unique in many ways, as our marketing team conveys each year. However, we differ from typical high schools in another, more overlooked way: We don’t have any flying flags, not even a flagpole, on campus.
You could be forgiven for never noticing this seemingly small absence. It’s the kind of thing you never think about until it’s brought to your attention.
We do, you may have remembered, have a flag hanging in the gym. Our league, the North Coast Section, requires a national anthem performance for playoff games. The flag was put up years ago, Assistant Athletic Director Kevin Christensen said, for convenience’s sake. For field sports, both Christensen and Athletic Director Chris Ziemer agreed that putting a temporary flag up on the fence has never been a problem.
Nevertheless, our beautiful campus is currently missing a true flying flag.
In fact, as a high school in the state of California, we are legally required to display both the American flag and the California state flag. California Government Code § 431 reads, “The Flag of the United States and the Flag of the State shall be prominently displayed during business hours upon or in front of the buildings or grounds of or at each of the following places: At the entrance or upon the grounds or upon the administration building of every university, college, high school, and elementary school, both public and private, within the State.”
Though the law has thus far been unenforced, Sonoma Academy stands in violation of the state code. Ziemer told me he’s “not aware of any movements for or against a flag,” over the time he’s been at SA.
It’s a curious situation. It seems almost impossible to last twenty-four years as a school without a student, parent, or administrator questioning our absent flag. However, Humanities Teacher Jamie Murray, who’s worked at SA since it opened, says the issue has never come up. “It seems purposeful, right?” he said, “It seems like we had a conversation early on and we were like, we don’t want the American flag in classrooms or whatever… But I can’t remember ever having heard that conversation or being part of it. ”
Although most administrators from the school’s founding have since moved on from their positions, former and founding Head of School Janet Durgin was able to comment. According to her, there was no such discussion about flying an American flag. “There was never a decision not to have one,” she told me, “and I think it was never important enough to anybody to make it happen or to say, wait a minute, you know?”
In fact, erecting a flagpole was only ever brought up once in Durgin’s tenure. It was by a former founding trustee, Rick Theis. Theis was the chair of what was then called the Buildings and Grounds Committee (now Facilities). In Sonoma Academy’s first year at our new campus, Theis apparently “was very interested in [putting up a flag] and wanted to do it.” But due to the vast number of responsibilities that the facilities team had, Durgin told me, “he just got distracted” cleaning up the “rocky pasture” that became our field, and didn’t end up following through. Thus, our flagpole was never included among the projects building a new school entails.
Our new Head of School, Percy Abram, noticed we didn’t have a flag on one of his first visits to campus. He wasn’t surprised. He’s taught at schools without flags before, including an independent school in California, which apparently also stands in violation of the same state code.
When asked whether or not he thinks we should fly a flag, Abrams said, “I don’t see it as something that the school needs, and we’ve been on this campus now for 18 or so years, and have gotten by pretty well without it.”
Similarly, Humanities Teacher Drew Gloger believes we’re better off without one. “There’s always politics around the flag,” he told me, “so I think our decision not to have a flagpole actually avoids some of that controversy which can be really tricky for an organization.”
Gloger brought up different national controversies around the raising and lowering of the flag. Things get fraught, he said, “when the question is, should we lower it to half staff? And under what circumstances should one do that or not do that?”
Raising a flag could be interpreted as a political statement, which the school certainly would rather avoid. A flag, as Gloger noted, could put administrators and the facilities team into the uncomfortable situation of deciding which national events warranted differential flag treatment.
Therefore, until this point, Sonoma Academy has quietly refrained from flying a flag. But this begs the question: What do you think? Should Sonoma Academy erect a flagpole and fly the US flag?