Lawsuit filed against Anoka-Hennepin School District on behalf of lesbian couple
Friday, January 28, 2011 at 3:49 pm
- 15 Comments
A lawsuit was filed in federal court Friday afternoon over the Anoka Hennepin School District’s refusal to allow a lesbian couple to walk together in the Snow Days coronation ceremony at Champlin Park High School. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the two students by the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleges that the school district violated the students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
According to documents filed with the court, Desiree Shelton and Sarah Lindstrom campaigned for and were elected to the Royalty Court of the Snow Days celebration. In past years, the elected royalty walk in procession in male-female pairs, and two male students agreed to walk side-by-side so that Shelton and Lindstrom could walk in as a pair.
According to the complaint, Mathew Mattson, Assistant Principal for Activities, said, “[E]ven if the male couples stated that they were comfortable with the decision [to walk in as a pair] now, they may not be three months from now and when a picture of them processing together surfaces and rumors get started that they are gay.”
The school district initially decided to allow the royalty to walk in single file, but, after conversations with the two students, decided to cancel the procession and instead have the royalty simple sit on stage.
The girls said their desire to walk in as a couple was “to make a political and public statement about gender roles and the visibility of LGBT students and couples” at the high school.
The complaint states that the district’s actions “constitute impermissible viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, violate their equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution, and constitute prohibited discrimination under the Minnesota Human Rights Act.”
The district’s spokesperson, Mary Olson, told the Minnesota Independent, “We dispute the facts and the legal analysis. We believe we have come up with a better practice that is more tolerant and acceptable of all students.”
Here’s the court filing:
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Comment posted January 28, 2011 @ 7:13 pm
I find this issue to be wildly blown out of proportion by the school administration and the school district. I am a recent graduate of Champlin Park and I attended the Snow Days Pep Fest and dance for the last two years. There have been homosexual students nominated to the court in previous years. These students were fine walking across the gym in front of the student body with the opposite sex. These two girls were not comfortable with the situation, so they went to Student Council, who organizes the Snow Days event. The Student Council agreed that the two girls could walk together, as long as two guys (who were heterosexual) were okay walking together. The two boys agreed to the arrangement. There have been plenty of lesbian and gay couple who have attended the dance together and no one has ever protested. Obviously the student body nominated the two girls to be royalty, and has no issue with the girls being on the court. When the principal heard about the two girls walking together he decided that was not alright, for whatever reason, and declared they could not walk together. The school board agreed with his decision. Shouldn’t the student body and Student Council who are putting on these events make the decision?
Comment posted January 28, 2011 @ 8:02 pm
What a shame that the Hate Group FRC and it’s underling Hate Group (soon) MFC and that rediculous Barb Anderson bring to Minnesota. The entire nation is watching and we’ve got these bumbling bigots humiliating our state.
Note to the school district… you have LOTS of GLBT kids in this district. Is NOM or the Catholic Church going to step in and pay each of your court ordered settlements? Because as a tax payer without children funding this district, I can tell you that I sure as HELL am not going to pay for your bullshit and bigotry.
FRC H8 IS WRONG FOR OUR STATE!!!
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 5:24 am
Anyone at the district or at the school who was involved in making these stupid decisions should resign or be fired immediately. Lawsuits cost money, something schools simply do not have these days. If these administrators are making dumb decisions like this, what other stupid actions have they taken? We cannot afford to have idiots at the helm when it comes to our schools.
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 7:50 am
“We believe we have come up with a better practice that is more tolerant and acceptable of all students.”
You see the poor dears up there in wingnut land can not tolerate the sight of the Gay. So it is more “acceptable” to put these young women in a more inconspicuous setting.
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 10:29 am
At a time when schools are underfunded, and current funding is threatened by economic and conservative ideological factors, a potentially costly lawsuit will be devastating to every child in Anoka-Hennepin. The K-12 system exists to prepare the people for adulthood (18 in MN). Adulthood, after graduation, is the time for costly stunts and grandstanding. In the mean time, support education, not absurd and distracting political theatre.
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 11:29 am
Parents of this school district,
Do your homework on this. Find out who in the school administration is behind this bigoted policy. You’ll want to know this information because it’s these people who have decided to use your tax dollars in their religious quest to discriminate against people they don’t like.
Wouldn’t the money the school will be spending on this lawsuit better be spent on band instruments, books, athletic equipment, etc?
If you care about your school district’s wise and prudent use your tax money, you should see to it that the school administrators behind this policy are looking for new jobs.
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 11:40 am
Wouldn’t you think that the school board would have learned a lesson by now? Bigotry is not acceptable in any society. SHAME ON THEM!
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 5:30 pm
Where else but in the Sixth Congressional District would you see this kind of ignorant, bigoted behavior by school officials?
KSTP just reported that the right-wing clowns behind this stunt have capitulated and the two girls will be allowed to walk together as a couple in the Champlin Park Pep Fest next week. Another humiliation for the intolerant fringe..
Comment posted January 29, 2011 @ 5:46 pm
math,
Thanks for the update. Excellent news.
Unfortunately, it’s doubtful this will be the last we hear about Bachmann’s Bimbo Brigades and their drive to marginalize GLBT people.
Comment posted January 30, 2011 @ 6:45 am
Just another reason for decent families to take their kids out of the cultural cesspools that are the government schools.
Comment posted January 30, 2011 @ 8:27 am
Dennis –
So what you’re saying is that decent families don’t have gay children?
Comment posted January 30, 2011 @ 10:04 am
Thomas – that’s exactly what he’s saying. By “decent” he means “church-going conservative Christian who loves guns, hates gays, and has a passel of kids who are either straight or too terrified to so much as poke a toe out of the closet.”
Comment posted January 30, 2011 @ 8:30 pm
Dennis and people like him yearn for a whitewashed time and America that never was.
Comment posted January 31, 2011 @ 9:52 am
Dennis is rite!!!
America used to be a meltin pot thing. But then they put in Jews, Italyans, Irish, blacks, mexicans and homos and that made it a cesspool insted of a meltin pot thing. This is what Dennis is sayin. It’s just lojikal.
If ya want a meltin pot, it needs to be all white and christian, see? And no catholics too.
God Bless America!!!
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