Four members of the Detroit Lakes School District School Board blindsided the district at the end of July with a directive to ban all rainbow stickers, posters, flags, buttons without letting anyone know that they were going to do it and without giving any opportunity for parents, teachers, students, and even the superintendent the opportunity to respond.
To learn more, John Parker and Jim Pounds talked with Katherine Allen Halverson, who is a staff attorney at the ACLU of Minnesota.
John Parker: You have put out a statement and reached out to the school district. Tell us about what you know of the situation and what you hope the school district does moving forward.
Catherine Ahlin-Halverson: Yeah. We’re very concerned about the situation that is unfolding in Detroit Lakes. And I’ve been talking to families this week, families who are LGBTQ+ community members who are feeling attacked and suddenly not safe in a school district that’s there to care for their kids. Last week, the school board passed a resolution that reportedly directs the supervisor, superintendent to provide for the immediate removal of all non-school materials not funded, sponsored, or authorized by the school district, including rainbow stickers, posters, flags, and buttons. So this sounds to us like a Human Rights Act violation, a constitutional violation across a whole lot of areas. It’s really concerning.
John Parker: And I’m not up on my Robert’s Rules of Orders or open meeting laws as well. But I mean, what got me when I was reading up on this story for this afternoon was that the board had literally just had a whole retreat about not springing things on each other. And then four people just walked into a board meeting and said, “Oh, by the way, we’re going to do this and we’re not letting anybody get to talk about it.” And then boom, we’re done. Which I don’t know if that’s a violation of Minnesota’s open meetings law, but can you talk to us more about how the Minnesota Human Rights Act could come into play here?
Catherine Ahlin-Halverson: I think that this resolution does potentially violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Minnesota Constitution, both laws that protect against the unequal treatment and the discrimination and harassment of LGBTQ+ people. And so instructing teachers and students to remove pride flags sends a message to students, staff, families that LGBTQ+ students are not to be cared for, celebrated, or protected. And that creates great risk for a hostile environment that would be harming and discriminating against LGBTQ+ students.
this sounds to us like a Human Rights Act violation, a constitutional violation across a whole lot of areas
Jim Pounds: And forgive me, am I understanding correctly that they just specified rainbows?
Catherine Ahlin-Halverson: That’s right.
Jim Pounds: I mean, so it’s not all things that are not sanctioned by the school, it’s just that particular category.
Catherine Ahlin-Halverson: Right, Jim, it’s such a good point. And what that tells us is that this is not a viewpoint neutral resolution. That suggests that it’s politically motivated that this is a view that these school board members have against the LGBTQ+ community. And they’re specifically targeting that community and people who want to express their support for that community, people who want to create an inclusive environment. And that smacks of a First Amendment violation too.
John Parker: And I believe it was in the Star Tribune reporting on this, one of the board members said, “Well, the supporters of the flags and the inclusive stickers and buttons want to show a welcoming environment, but it’s not welcoming to the other people who goes against their beliefs.” Can you speak to that? Because in the public, I find things all the time that I don’t like, but it’s called the First Amendment. And we have that also in the Minnesota Constitution, Freedom of Speech and Expression. Can you talk to this argument that they seem to be making? I’m using they in a big term here. So a lot of the folks that bring these forward say, “Well, this offends me and my religion or whatever, and therefore I shouldn’t have to ever see it or talk about it or hear about it or learn about it.”
Catherine Ahlin-Halverson: Yeah. I mean, to the question around the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the Human Rights Act identifies protected categories of people who have been targeted and marginalized, and that is why it protects against discrimination to them. So that’s the difference between somebody who doesn’t like seeing a rainbow flag and somebody who suffers from a hostile environment that is fomented and created by a school board that’s attacking them. But also you don’t have 100% First Amendment rights within a school, but students and teachers retain some First Amendment rights. Teachers retain rights to express their views on matters of public concern and creating an inclusive environment for students is that. And so that’s, I think, where that carve-out exists. And same with students. Students have a First Amendment right unless they’re creating a substantial or material disruption of the school. And I don’t see how a rainbow is going to create that kind of substantial and material disruption that would allow a school to just get rid of them.
John Parker: You were mentioning this earlier in the segment. And can you speak to the impact of this? Because legal challenges can be filed and what happens in the courts can take a while. The school district may decide to rescind it on their own, but this could play out over months, years even. What is the immediate impact of this? What is this doing to kids right now?
Catherine Ahlin-Halverson: So this is why I think it is important when we’re talking about these big court decisions and fights that are playing out for us to talk about where do we get impacted? And in this case, in Minnesota where we have a lot of really strong protections for our LGBTQ+ community, and that is really important. We still have a climate and a federal administration that it’s attacking that community, and that can empower people to make those attacks at the local level. And the best way to protect our kids is to stand up at that level. Stand up, learn about your school board, learn about what your students’ rights are in school and advocate there. We have a program called School Board Watch, and that’s what it’s about. It’s about giving people the opportunity to learn their rights and learn how to go to their school and advocate and for us to provide support for that because that’s how we can protect our kids.
Connect with the ACLU of Minnesota and learn more: https://aclu-mn.org
https://aclu-mn.org/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-lgbtq-communityÂ
