A Flag for Everyone

At Billy Mills Middle School, all students are made to feel at home.

When Dr. Andrew Taylor started his tenure as principal at Billy Mills Middle School he wanted to make sure all the students felt welcomed in the building.

“Listen, kids face enough challenges today,” Dr. Taylor said. “I mean, even before the pandemic took so much away from the kids, we wanted to recognize each student and their unique story. We are a diverse community and we want to celebrate that, so we have a flag to recognize the birth country of all of our students.”

Dr. Taylor had the idea while working in the Kansas City, Kansas school district and was quick to implement the plan. He sent an email to all students and their families asking for countries and was determined to raise a flag for each unique response.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” he said. “We have, I think twenty-nine different countries represented, including indigenous nations. Since all these kids are in this school, it helps emphasize the idea that even though we’re different, we can work on unity and respect. The kids seem to pick up on that.”

Billy Mills has slowly been welcoming more and more students back for in-person class since February. Dr. Taylor said that once they started to hang flags, kids started to express more interest.

“A few kids would even ask about the flags,” Dr. Taylor laughs. “I got a few ‘Hey, what’s that one?’ If that’s what it takes to start a conversation, I’m thrilled.”

Dr. Taylor says that if a small gesture like hanging a flag can make a kid feel a bit more comfortable in school, then he’ll raise as many as it takes.

“Kids have enough challenges these days,” he said. “If we can do something to make coming into the school a more welcoming environment, then we’ll do it.”