The Welcome Sign That Wouldn’t Stay Down. Now Permanently Hanging in a Boise Classroom
Everyone Is Welcome Sign Hangs At Tree Fort
We’re telling this story because The Good Network exists to highlight the good our community does. When neighbors show up for kids and a simple message becomes a shared promise, that’s the kind of good worth amplifying.
How it started
In early 2025, West Ada School District told Lewis & Clark Middle School teacher Sarah Inama to remove two inclusive posters, including one that read “Everyone Is Welcome Here.” She took them down, sat with how that felt, and then put one back up, sparking a much bigger conversation about whether welcoming kids in a public classroom is “political” or simply the floor of education.
How the community stepped up
Chalk the Walk. Families and students organized a chalk walk outside West Ada’s district offices—covering the sidewalks with welcoming messages for teachers and kids. By the next morning, the district had power-washed the chalk away, but the point had landed: people were going to show up, visibly and peacefully, for a message of belonging.
Shirts and solidarity. A valley-wide “wear the shirt” day formed for March 24, and local print shops worked around the clock to keep up. Social media filled with thousands of photos from classrooms, kitchens, bus stops, and front porches. By our community’s informal tally, it topped 15,000 posts neighbors telling students, with their whole chest, you belong here.
How Brigade Screen Printing Turned a Message into Thousands of Shirts
When our community circled a day to wear “Everyone Is Welcome Here,” Brigade Screen Printing in Boise hit the gas. They didn’t just open the webstore and hope for the best they built a whole operation around one idea: get the message onto as many backs as possible, as fast as possible.
In that first surge, Brigade ran dawn-to-dusk (and then some). Their general manager told reporters the team was there “every single day this week, working from sun up to sun down,” as orders kept flooding in. Presses stayed hot; tables filled with stacks of youth and adult sizes; finished orders rolled out the door.
They also organized for scale. Brigade stood up a dedicated catalog—adult, youth, classroom collections, and the official banner—so schools and families could order without confusion. They added a “Donate a Tee” option that funneled shirts directly to local students and teachers who needed one.
And they didn’t do it alone. Coverage and social posts describe a small army of volunteers people stepping in to fold, tag, and sort by size and school while staff kept the presses moving. When shipping windows got tight, Brigade highlighted UPS runs to push deliveries out the same day.
By the time the “wear the shirt” day arrived, Brigade had moved thousands of shirts across the Valley. What could’ve been a niche print job became a visible community rhythm classrooms, sidewalks, pickup lines—everywhere you looked, the same four words.
Bottom line: Brigade didn’t just print merch; they stood up a fast, community-powered logistics line so the message could walk into school the very next week.
Teachers Rally At State Capitol
Rallies for teachers. Within days, students staged walkouts and families organized a teachers’ rally at the Idaho State Capitol. On April 6, hundreds gathered on the Capitol steps—sharing stories, holding homemade signs, and turning four plain words into a chorus.
Boise shows its values. The Boise School District publicly echoed the community, sharing images of district leaders in “Everyone Is Welcome Here” shirts and publishing a clear reminder that, in Boise schools, every student is welcome. For a lot of kids and families, that posture mattered.
What happened next
Even as support grew, West Ada didn’t change course. In May, Sarah announced she would leave the district; in June, the Boise School District hired her for the coming school year. This fall, in her Boise classroom, the welcome sign went back up permanently. We’ll link a short video so you can see that quiet, steady moment for yourself.
Meanwhile, the legal landscape shifted. Lawmakers passed House Bill 41, restricting flags and banners on school property that depict “political, religious, or ideological” viewpoints; the Idaho Department of Education issued compliance guidance on June 26. A few days later, on June 30, the Idaho Attorney General’s office issued an opinion saying the “Everyone Is Welcome Here” sign may not be displayed in Idaho schools under the new law. The guidance also clarified that personal items like pins, shirts, and electronic displays are exempt—another reason community expressions (shirts, posts, photos) mattered so much.
Yes, this is Idaho—there’s a diversity of opinion
We live in a state with strong, often candid debates. Folks who opposed the poster (and later supported HB 41) raised several concerns:
Classroom neutrality. They argue that teachers’ walls should avoid any messages they see as ideological—however well-intended—so students and families with different beliefs don’t feel pressured or out of place. West Ada leaders said the imagery on Sarah’s poster, not the words alone, pushed it into a policy problem.
Slippery slope. If one message tied (in their view) to contemporary social or political movements is allowed, they worry it opens the door to a patchwork of competing slogans, symbols, and flags—fueling conflict and distraction from academics. The Attorney General’s office framed the phrase and design as part of an ideological movement, which is why it concluded the poster violates HB 41. Idaho Education NewsIdaho Office of Attorney General
“Say it, don’t display it.” Some contend that belonging should be lived through daily conduct and school policies, not expressed through posters they consider “political.” HB 41’s backers say the law aims to keep official classroom displays neutral while allowing personal expression (like shirts) and academic discussion. Idaho Department of Education+1
We disagree with calling a welcome message “political,” but it’s fair to acknowledge these perspectives exist—and they’ll keep shaping how districts navigate policy and culture.
What we choose, together
Here’s the part that won’t get washed away: this wasn’t about one poster or one person. It was thousands of Idahoans, students, educators, families, businesses—choosing a shared promise. It was chalk dust on sidewalks, shirts on a Monday, a sea of signs on the Capitol steps, and a district publicly saying to its kids, you belong here.
Laws can decide what’s taped to a wall. We decide what lives in our culture. “Everyone Is Welcome Here” isn’t a campaign slogan; it’s the floor—the simple promise adults make so kids can learn, try, fail, try again, and grow. If a shirt helps a shy sixth-grader take a breath, wear the shirt. If a statement helps a worried parent exhale, say it out loud. And if a poster helps a student who feels new, different, or unsure know the room is for them too, keep finding ways legal and local to make that welcome unmistakable.
The sign that wouldn’t stay down is up, and it’s home. Our community put it there—not just with tape and a thumbtack, but with thousands of small acts that told kids the truth they deserve to hear every day: Everyone is welcome here.
