In September, Kansas high school student Logan Waner painted a rainbow flag in his parking spot as part of a senior tradition of painting parking stalls. The flag set off controversy in the town of Marion, and now the tradition has been canceled.
A September report on the flag painting:
The school board voted 4-3 Monday to end the practice of seniors painting their parking stalls, the Marion County Record reported.
Waner painted a rainbow flag — a symbol of LGBT pride — on his parking spot at the central Kansas school in September. A day later, Chuck Seifert of Marion showed up at a special school board meeting to complain to superintendent Aaron Homburg.
Confusion came when Waner posted on Facebook that principal Tod Gordon was requiring him to change his design — a claim Gordon denied. He said he had no specific guidelines for painting the spots and approved the design before it was painted.
Waner kept his spot, but a vandal covered the public property with black latex asphalt sealer the next day.
“I knew there would be someone who would complain,” Waner said through Facebook Messenger. “It’s just human instinct. But I didn’t think all the controversy over one man’s complaint was necessary. It did prove a point though. I mostly chose to paint the flag because it’s simple enough and I’m a horrible artist. It described me well enough, so it just felt right.”
The flag also attracted the attention of Westboro Baptist Church, which recently came to protest.
