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Inset: Sarah Inama (Idaho Education News). Background: The Idaho school where social studies teacher Sarah Inama hung up her “Everyone is Welcome here” poster that was banned by district officials (Google Maps).
In a contentious move, Idaho school authorities have been accused of imposing an “unconstitutional” prohibition on a teacher’s “Everyone is Welcome Here” poster. This poster, hung by Sarah Inama, a social studies teacher at Lewis & Clark Middle School, was deemed a form of “political resistance” against the rise of President Donald Trump and labeled as “not something that everyone believed,” as outlined in her legal complaint.
The West Ada School District administrators reportedly informed Inama that her poster was considered a political statement because “not everyone agrees that ‘everyone is welcome,'” according to the federal lawsuit she filed in the District of Idaho. This lawsuit highlights the controversy surrounding the district’s stance on what constitutes a political opinion within educational settings.
Adding to the controversy, the administrators allegedly pointed out that the depiction of hands from various races in Inama’s poster crossed a “political boundary.” Principal Monty Hyde of Lewis & Clark reportedly reiterated this sentiment during a February 2025 discussion with Inama, suggesting that the poster’s message reflected a viewpoint not universally accepted.
This issue unfolded against the backdrop of legislative changes in Idaho. The state legislature introduced House Bill 41 (HB 41), aiming to ban “flags” or “banners” that conveyed “ideological views” about race or politics. This bill was passed and signed into law by March 2025, further complicating the discourse on educational expression and freedom.
The legislation, House Bill 41 (HB 41), was passed and signed into law in March 2025.
“Sounds racist to me,” Inama told Hyde and her school’s vice principal, Heather Fisher, during their conversation in February 2025, according to the complaint. “Principal Hyde explained that the notion that ‘Everyone is Welcome Here’ was not something that everybody believed and was therefore a personal opinion in violation.”
The “Everyone is welcome here” poster that was banned after Sarah Inama hung it up in her classroom (Idaho Education News).
School officials deemed Inama’s poster as violating HB 41 after Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador defined “poster” as falling within the statutory definition of a “banner,” according to her complaint. He made the determination and then reiterated it in a June 2025 opinion filed with the state’s Department of Education.
Labrador concluded that the “Welcome Poster” and others like it in Inama’s classroom, including ones with rainbow colors, “‘cannot be displayed in Idaho schools’ because the posters ‘are part of an ideological/social movement which started in Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump,’” according to Inama’s complaint.
Labrador later penned an op-ed for Fox News in July 2025 in which he said, “The rainbow colors and progressive symbols accompanying these messages make their political purpose unmistakable” and they “reflect a broader ecosystem of political resistance groups launched in protest of the political rise of President Donald Trump.”
Labrador added, “These seemingly neutral terms mask a comprehensive worldview that undermines parental authority over children’s moral development.”
Inama was a sixth-grade teacher at Lewis & Clark Middle School before she resigned in May 2025. She says that “no student ever complained” about her posters being “unwelcoming,” nor did parents.
In her initial responses to administrators, Inama said she felt it was “gross to say that we need to remove hands representing colors of all students in our school,” according to her complaint. She noted that she “doesn’t agree that the skin tone is a political message” and “doesn’t want to appease bigoted people.”
The complaint adds that Inama tried fighting the ban at first, stating that it was “important to her that she not crumble to something that feels racist.” But there was ultimately nothing she could do to persuade administrators.
“Ms. Inama now brings this lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief that the Speech Law [HB 41] is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment, is violative of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, both facially and as applied, and is a violation of the Constitution of the State of Idaho,” the complaint concludes.
Labrador, the Idaho State Board of Education and Idaho State Department of Education, the West Ada School District, its superintendent Derek Bub, and principal Hyde are all named as defendants in the 43-page document. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday by Law&Crime.