Idaho officials violated the U.S. and state constitutions when they pushed a public school teacher to take down a classroom banner that featured the words “Everyone is Welcome Here” and hands with various skin tones, according to a federal lawsuit.
In the suit, filed Tuesday, former Lewis & Clark Middle School teacher Sarah Inama alleges school officials told her to remove the banner in 2025, even though it had adorned her classroom for years without complaint.
That all changed in early 2025, the lawsuit alleges, as the West Ada School District in Meridian prepared for the likely passage of HB 41, a state law that outlawed most political and ideological displays in classrooms.
Inama said school officials approached her in early February of that year and insisted she take the banner down, explaining that the message of the poster was “an opinion that not everyone agrees with.”
Inama said she told her principal that such thinking “sounds racist,” and he allegedly responded, “I know it’s a bummer.”
The sixth-grade teacher initially took down the sign, but returned it to her classroom later that month, after students reached out, wondering why she had removed it.
In an email, she told the principal she would “die to know that any students felt like I had changed my stance.”
School officials then allegedly accused Inama of insubordination.
In a February 13 meeting about the issue, a top district official allegedly explained something along the lines of, “What may not have had a political message in the past could be one now,” according to notes from the exchange. “[The] [m]oment we present a political or personal belief we violate the law…the color of the hands is crossing the political boundary.”
The dispute over the sign soon became a local and national news story.
In March of 2025, students, administrators, and members of the public protested in support of Inama and drew imagery reminiscent of the sign outside district offices in a “Chalk the Walk” demonstration.
By May, Inama announced her resignation.
“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 a resignation letter.
In July, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador wrote in a Fox News op-ed that the state stood against “woke” attempts at “indoctrination” like Inama’s sign.
Labrador, a Republican, claimed the sign was linked to a “broader ecosystem of political resistance groups launched in protest of the political rise of President Donald Trump” and alleged the sign was part of a left-wing movement that “transformed learning spaces into venues for DEI messaging disguised as inclusion.”
Inama bought her sign in 2021 at an arts and crafts store in a pack, along with other motivational materials like a sign reading, “[I]n this room everyone is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued, equal.”
The suit names the Idaho State Board of Education, Idaho Department of Education, Attorney General Labrador, and school district officials.
The Independent has contacted these parties for comment.
The complaint seeks damages and a declaration that the state law in question violates the U.S. and state constitutions.
The ACLU has criticized HB 41, which became law in March 2025, comparing it to “censorship.”
Throughout the Trump era, conservative-leaning states have passed laws banning what they see as improper ideological displays in classrooms, including Pride flags.
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