MORROW, Ohio — A Little Miami teacher is suing both the district and school board president after he was forced to remove a poster with the words "Hate Has No Home Here" from his classroom.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of an unnamed teacher, says he had the poster hanging in his classroom for approximately four years "without generating any complaints." Images show the poster depicted five hands holding up heart-shaped icons that displayed a peace sign, American flag, rainbow Pride flag and transgender Pride flag.
In September 2025, the lawsuit says the teacher's principal told him that Little Miami School Board President David Wallace went into his classroom and took a picture of the poster before going to the school's media center and searching for "objectionable" books.
Months later, a board member reached out to the superintendent with a question about two posters — including the teacher's.
In February, the lawsuit says the teacher's principal told him that Wallace himself had contacted the superintendent requesting they take down the "Hate Has No Home Here" poster, but the principal indicated he would not order the teacher to do so.
Watch the controversial school board vote to remove an anti-hate poster:
Instead, the teacher wrote an email at the principal's request defending the poster, providing American History and AP European History curriculum standards that he believed made the poster "especially applicable."
The following day, the lawsuit says the superintendent wrote in an email that while the poster "contains symbols of identities," she did not believe the poster would "prompt discussion, provide instruction or solicit student engagement on sexual concepts or gender ideology."
After an in-person meeting, the lawsuit says the superintendent told the teacher she would not order him to take down the flag. However, if the school board voted to remove the flag, not doing so would result in the teacher being disciplined, per union procedures.
The school board's outside counsel, Omar Tarazi, emailed the superintendent, stating the general message could be "displayed over a neutral image, such as the American flag or a generic student image," or could use "more neutral versions of the anti-hate and respect theme images."
The teacher, though, wrote that finding a "neutral" image could "inadvertently lead to the erasure of LGBTQ+ representation," suggesting he add to the flags instead of taking any away. He stated that the flags were "at most an incidental reference," for which school board policy does carve out specific exemptions.
Later that month, the school board voted 4-1 to order the poster's removal. During the nearly three-hour-long meeting, a majority of parents who commented on the matter spoke in support of keeping the poster up.
However, Wallace wrote in a statement after the vote that while the poster did fall under "incidental references," the board determined the poster "reasonably understood to engage students on those topics, which requires parental notice and the opportunity to review and opt out."
The teacher, in his lawsuit, is calling for an injunction on the board prohibiting him from hanging the poster in his classroom and a judgment declaring the school board's actions as unconstitutional.
