Newberg School Board Controversy: How is George Fox University Involved?

By: Natascha Lambing

Photographed by: Maxine Parkin

Just a few yards off of George Fox University’s (GFU) main campus, it is not unusual to see demonstrators gathering at Newberg’s locally known meeting spot, “the Flagpole.” In recent months, these gatherings have taken place as a reaction to the Newberg School Board’s attempt to ban all Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Pride flags. Rain or shine, peace- or tension-filled, it is also not unusual to recognize GFU students, alumni, and faculty members alongside their neighbors, a pointed reminder of the strong voices in the GFU community willing to take a stand.

Of late, Newberg has begun to accumulate a list of unsavory incidents. First, there was the controversial school board descision, followed by involvement of students in the Newberg School District (NSD) discussing ‘selling’ their Black classmates in a “slave trade” Snapchat group. Subsequently, a NSD employee arrived to work in Blackface, calling “herself Rosa Parks in protest of a vaccine mandate for all school district staff.” Unsurprisingly, the community has been vocal in denouncing these events.

Various community members, such as @newbergrejectswhitesupremacy on Instagram, have been vocal in distributing information, organizing, and providing current updates on both the NSD itself and related events. The Instagram collective described themselves to The Crescent as “parents, educators, business owners, GFU alums, artists, and more.” Collectively, they are “people who care deeply about this town and are working to make it safe and accessible for everyone.” Originally the group started as an “offshoot of events organized with Project I Have A Dream that happened in the summer of 2020,” but it has since been involved in various projects, now engaging in weekly sign waving every Friday at the Flagpole at 5 p.m.

Largely as a result of the organizational efforts of @newbergrejectswhitesupremacy, the weekly Flagpole gatherings have drawn much attention. So much so that on Sept. 26, a group of self-proclaimed Proud Boys stationed themselves across the street from the existing group of demonstrators.

Current GFU student Audrey Wojnarowisch, who attended the gathering, said “the protest [...] was intentionally in the spot (the Flagpole) that those students had been every week for the last several weeks, not really because a Proud Boy protest was going on, but a continuation of showing up for students in our community.” To clarify, Wojnarowisch added that their gathering was not a counter-protest, and it “was intentionally in a space where [Proud Boys] were not.”

However, it was not long before physical confrontation occurred. In a video posted to local journalist Ryan Clarke’s Twitter, Wojnarowisch and GFU alumni Rory Brown can be seen having a physical altercation with members of the group. Both Brown and Wojnarowisch described the interaction as trying to prevent the Proud Boys from entering into contact with younger and more vulnerable members of the community. Brown said “it was more of us putting ourselves in a position [where] they couldn’t get over to our side and that’s when the shoving started [...] we both ended up in the street. [...] I have a bruise across my chest because the guy took his flag and hit me in the chest.”

However, media coverage of the event presented conflicting stories. A post by Newberg Public School’s Facebook page said, “while multiple sources last night were reaching out to us concerned about Proud Boys rumors, we are now hearing those rumors are unfounded.” Another publication by the Newberg Graphic centered the perspectives of the Proud Boys present without acknowledging other participants.

To this, @newbergrejectswhitesupremacy made a post, referring to the Newberg Graphic article as “deeply misleading and offensive,” and continued, “The teenagers on the receiving end of ugly slurs from heavily armed men did not feel ‘received’ or ‘loved,’” contrasting what was said by one of the Proud Boys interviewed.

Media representations of these sort of events is important, especially in a place like Newberg where the economy relies heavily on tourism and GFU. According to Zachary Goff, a Newberg resident and employee of locally owned Pollinate Flowers, the negative press associated with NSD’s ban on BLM and Pride flags “got to the point that the Chamber of Commerce, [...] which is typically apolitical, [...] had to come out and say it needs to end. Many people were emailing saying they were never going to Newberg again.”

In effort to facilitate changes that would promote diversity and hopefully strengthen Newberg’s image, Goff is the chief petitioner of the Recall Brian Shannon Campaign, which kicked off in late September with a family-friendly Drag Show fundraiser. John Peterson, owner of Pollinate Flowers alongside his husband Jeremi Carroll, said of the Drag Show, “I think that’s an important part of bringing drag queens of color to this area in a time where we need to really focus on gay rights and people of colors’ rights and highlight those voices.”

“Obviously a drag show is a really loud way to say ‘we're here’” Goff said. “And human,” Peterson added.

How does this connect to GFU? “I know that it sounds silly that we’re talking about flags,” said Audrey Wojnarowisch, who has been deeply involved with LGBTQIA+ advocacy in Christian higher education. “But I think that this needs to be thought about like the tip of the iceberg. When symbols are excluded, so are all of the subjects, the resources, the conversations that get resources to prevent horrible things from happening to kids [...] it’s the last thing, not the first thing, that gets kicked out of the conversation.” When asked about GFU’s lack of direct statement on the issue in relation to its proximity to NSD schools, Wojnarowisch said, “for us to be loudly silent on whether queer and BIPOC students should be protected [...] reflects on our own community. We are being complacent.”

GFU Alumni Rory Brown described how last year the Intercultural Resource Center (IRC) asked university president Robin Baker to publicly denounce white supremacy following the events of summer 2020. It was only “after the riot, and after George Fox students were arrested at the Insurrection, that a specific announcement was made saying: “[W]e condemn the suppression of underrepresented voices [and] white supremacy.” Brown responded with, “I’m nervous for George Fox [...] because they’re not getting in front of any problems. They're not taking initiative, I think George Fox is on the brink of another huge scandal and we need to get in front of it because they historically have not.”

This comes from a place of GFU hosting a primarily white student body where it can be easy to be silent. “I don’t think that’s what God calls me to do,” Brown said in reference to potential silence. “I don’t think that’s what God calls us to do as white people. So when GFU preaches ‘we need to take care of those in the margins’ at their students but doesn’t do that themselves, it puts the students in a really weird position.”

Despite Brown's concern over GFU's lack of involvement in the NSD controversy, these events have demonstrated the power of the Newberg community coming together. Zachary Goff sees this as an opportunity for students to be empowered to action. “What I have seen, which I think is different than what we’ve ever seen before, [is] that the students are quickly learning that they have a lot more power than what seems to be given to them.”