In a vote on Wednesday, the Little Miami Local Schools board voted 4-to-1 to remove a poster with the words "Hate Has No Home Here" from a classroom in the school district.
The district is located north of Cincinnati.
The poster, which a parent said has been hanging in the classroom for several years without complaints, includes five hands holding up hearts with images on them. Two of those images appear to reference the LGBTQ+ pride flag and the transgender pride flag.
"Hate has no place anywhere," said Mandy Bullock, board vice president. "But, once you add the symbols, that shouldn't be in a classroom setting."
Several board members during the meeting said they believe the poster is inappropriate, and board member Dan Smith talked about his religious beliefs before voting.
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WATCH: A controversial school board vote to remove an anti-hate poster has parents wondering if a lawsuit will follow
"Christians are lovers. We love people. Jesus loved people," Smith said. "But I'll tell you what he didn't love. He didn't love sin."
During the nearly three-hour meeting, most parents who commented spoke in support of keeping the poster up. Parent Amanda Van Mil was one of those in attendance.
"What we've seen in our school board is that they replaced our council who advises the school board on legal issues," she said. "Our previous council at a school board meeting had advised that choosing which posters or which displays were allowed based on content was a violation of First Amendment rights and was likely to have the school district be sued."
The only school board member to vote against removing the poster, Wayne Siebert, echoed Van Mil's worries about litigation.
"This is ridiculous. This has gone on for over a year," Siebert said. "We were told if we adopt this policy, the lawsuits will follow."
In 2024, the previous school board mulled over a policy that looked to dictate what items are appropriate to display in classrooms across the school district.
We reached out to all five Little Miami Local Schools board members, asking them if they had any additional comments to provide. Only David Wallace, the school board president, responded as of Thursday evening.
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"This decision was not based on the words 'Hate Has No Home Here,'" Wallace wrote in a statement. "The district remains fully committed to ensuring every student feels safe, respected and free from bullying or harassment."
Some of the four school board members who voted to remove the poster cited Ohio House Bill 8, also known as Ohio's Parents' Bill of Rights law.
The law, enacted in April 2025, directed school boards across the state to adopt policies allowing parents to be notified and given the choice to opt their students out of any instruction that includes "sexuality content."
However, the Little Miami Local Schools policy carves out specific exemptions for this rule, including "incidental references to sexual concepts or gender ideology occurring outside of formal instruction."
The poster in question falls under "incidental references," according to Wallace.
"Under Ohio law, incidental references to sexual concepts or gender ideology do not trigger parental notification requirements," Wallace wrote in a statement. "However, based on the record before it, the board determined this poster was reasonably understood to engage students on those topics, which requires parental notice and the opportunity to review and opt out. Until those procedures are followed, the board directed that the poster be removed."
We asked Van Mil how the poster became an item on the school board's agenda and if a parent reported it.
"That's a good question," she said. "That information was not made public at the school board meeting, and I think that this is part of a trend with our new school board that was sworn in in January."
We spoke with another parent, Amanda Hollingsworth, who said she disagrees with the characterization that the poster falls under "sexuality content."
"In no way does it promote it. It's not teaching children how to have this gender ideology or the sexual ideology," she said. "It's acknowledging that these people exist. That's how I see it. And there are gay children in the schools, there are gay employees in the schools. I don't see any problem with recognizing that they are there."
