Minnesota ACLU sues Detroit Lakes Public Schools over rainbow ban
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A tense meeting of the Detroit Lakes school board on Tuesday about its ban on rainbow pride or “safe space” stickers was interrupted by news from Superintendent Mark Jenson.
“We received an email during this meeting from our lawyer,” he said. “Two families have joined the ACLU, and we will be facing a lawsuit.”
On behalf of two students in the district, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, along with Minneapolis-based firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, sued the district and four school board members over the ban.
The lawsuit, filed with the Becker County District Court on Tuesday, alleges the ban on rainbow flags and stickers violates students’ rights protected by the Minnesota Constitution, including freedom of speech and equal protection.
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It also argues the ban “constitutes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,” which is illegal under the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
“They have the right not to experience bias and discrimination, and that is what a ban like this causes for them,” said Catherine Ahlin-Halverson, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota.
In a statement to MPR News, Jenson said the administration has not “directed the removal of any materials from schools” as the board continues to discuss district policy.
Ahlin-Halverson said the damage has already been done.
“There's a chilling effect, because students are aware that this is happening, and it is causing students not to speak up when they want to support LGBTQ+ students,” she said.
One of the plaintiffs is a high school student at Detroit Lakes High School identified in the lawsuit as L.S. The student, whose gender is not specified in the complaint, is president of the Detroit Lakes Queer Community, formerly known as the Gay-Straight Alliance Club.
L.S. is bringing the case through their mother, Amber Estenson, who is better known as the Minnesota-based online content creator That Midwestern Mom.
Ahlin-Halverson said L.S. has already had their ability to express themselves called into question because of the ban.
“Since the rainbow ban was adopted, our client has had other students suggest that our client's expression of their identity and their clothing and what they're wearing was inappropriate, was banned by the school board,” she said.
The lawsuit also alleges four board members violated Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law because they met privately “for the purpose of reaching agreement to introduce and vote for the LGBTQ+ Pride Ban.”
The ban was not placed on the agenda prior to the meeting, so the other two board members, who oppose the ban, didn’t see it prior to the morning it was passed.
The ACLU-MN also used a data request to obtain text messages between the board members prior to the July vote.
One week before that meeting, board member Michelle Okeson sent board member Sanford Nelson a link to an organization called Courage is a Habit, which says in its mission statement, “Reject inclusion. Embrace exclusion. Make courage your habit.”
“These school board members are banning expression, in this case rainbows, because of their anti-LGBTQ bias, and that's unlawful,”Ahlin-Halverson said.
The four board members named as defendants in the lawsuit did not respond to MPR’s request for comment.
‘Confusion, and then more confusion, and then more confusion’
At its work session Tuesday morning, the school board was discussing yet another proposed change to the district policy that regulates the “Distribution and Display of Non-school-sponsored Materials.”
But it was a different one than some board members were expecting to discuss. Julie Smith-Yliniemi said she was sent a version of the policy revised by the district’s attorney last week.
At the meeting, she was told that the board would now be considering a different version of the policy that uses language taken from one currently being considered by Hastings Public Schools.
It echoes the July meeting where the board initially passed the rainbow ban, as Smith-Yliniemi wasn’t informed about that resolution until the meeting had already started.
“It just seems to be confusion, and then more confusion, and then more confusion,” Smith-Yliniemi said.
The meeting itself was marked by visible and mutual frustration amongst the board members.
Mary Rotter, who like Smith-Yliniemi opposes the ban, said the July resolution was illegal and done with little input before being passed. She said the board has received 31 messages about the vote since then.
“Twenty-five of those were against the vote that was passed,” she said. “Six of those were for the vote.”
Board member Nelson, who initially introduced the ban, said the matter has been decided, and the board needs to now focus on legally implementing the decision made by a majority of the board in July.
“We can go back over old ground, you know, like a farmer that spreads manure on the field,” he said. “A farmer that spreads manure on ground and then plows it up and plows it up just raises a stink, and that's what it seems like we're doing.”
He added the policy they are now considering “will meet the legal muster and move us forward with the July resolution.”
Ahlin-Halverson, with the ACLU-MN, said a cleaner policy isn’t good enough if the effect is the same.
“The regulation of speech because you don't agree with it is unconstitutional,” she said. “Whether these school board members, who have been crystal clear about their anti-LGBTQ+ bias in passing the rainbow ban, now pursue a more neutral-sounding policy to get rid of the same rainbows they banned in the rainbow ban, doesn't impact the unconstitutional nature of the policy.”
The new language is scheduled to be read and discussed at the board’s next meeting on Monday.
