Minnesota Independent

Parents Action League warns of ‘radical homosexual agenda’ in Anoka-Hennepin schools

By Andy Birkey | 08.22.11 | 7:56 am

The Parents Action League is circulating a petition to the Anoka-Hennepin School Board asking it to maintain a policy that limits discussions of LGBT issues in the classroom. The petition comes as six students and their parents are suing the district over alleged persistent bullying in its schools and are requesting the policy be dropped. PAL’s petition asserts that LGBT people suffer “life-threatening health risks” and a flier by the group warns of a “radical homosexual agenda.”

Contentious debate continues to rile Anoka-Hennepin School District

By Andy Birkey | 08.16.11 | 7:25 am

The Anoka-Hennepin School District is defending its policies in light of lawsuits by six district students, unfavorable coverage on the editorial pages of area newspapers and a renewed national spotlight on the accusation of an unsafe environment for LGBT youth in the district’s schools. The district says its policies are not to blame for bullying in the district, but others have charged that the schools’ policy that limits LGBT discussions in schools is harmful to students.

Another student sues Anoka-Hennepin over anti-LGBT bullying

By Andy Birkey | 08.10.11 | 3:35 pm

A student filed suit against the Anoka-Hennepin School District on Monday alleging that the school district did not do enough to protect her from bullying. Filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the new suit alleges that a lesbian student was repeatedly harassed, both verbally and physically, and that the school undertook disciplinary action against the student instead of her tormentors.

Anoka-Hennepin schools dig in on anti-LGBT policy as lawsuit, federal investigation start

By Andy Birkey | 07.21.11 | 1:54 pm

Anoka-Hennepin School District, the largest in the state of Minnesota, has been at the center of a tug of war between the LGBT community, which says the district is not safe for students, and religious right parents, who want all mentions of LGBT issues stricken from school curricula and programming. At issue is a policy that restricts LGBT content in the schools, a policy the school district said on Monday it would not change. In response, a pair of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday morning. In addition, federal authorities have opened an investigation into the school district.

Religious right lawyers defend Anoka-Hennepin schools’ LGBT policy

By Andy Birkey | 06.30.11 | 11:23 am

Lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a national conservative Christian legal organization, sent a letter to the Anoka-Hennepin School District this week urging it to maintain its “neutrality policy” on sexual orientation. The letter comes in response to a possible lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Council for Lesbian Rights, two groups that have accused the district of creating an unsafe environment for LGBT students. The ADF argues that no changes are needed in the district, which has seen a spike in student suicides, including among LGBT students.

National groups demand Anoka Hennepin School District address bullying

By Andy Birkey | 05.25.11 | 11:10 am

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights sent a letter to the Anoka Hennepin School District on Tuesday demanding that the school district abandon its “neutrality policy,” which bars discussion of LGBT issues in district schools, and step up efforts to address bullying and harassment.

Paige Moravetz and Haylee Fentress. Source: TODAY

Double suicide in western Minnesota puts bullying back in spotlight

By Andy Birkey | 04.22.11 | 6:00 am

Two 14-year old girls committed suicide last week in Marshall, Minn., and the evidence suggests they’d been bullied. Relatives of Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz told Meredith Viera of the TODAY Show that the girls may have been more than just friends. Fentress had hyphenated her last name on Facebook to include Moravetz’s last name, and Fentress had been expelled from school recently for defending Paige in a fight. The pair’s deaths add to a growing list of suicides in Minnesota and around the country where bullying is suspected to have played a factor.

Protesters at a Feb. 2011 Anoka-Hennepin School Board meeting. Photo: Alec Lindsey

Tempers flare over anti-gay bullying at Anoka-Hennepin school board meeting

By Andy Birkey | 03.01.11 | 8:54 am

“If they are going to hell, I’m going to hell with them!” That interjection got one woman kicked out Monday night’s Anoka-Hennepin School Board meeting. Her statement came during the testimony of a conservative Christian parent who said she knows the “homosexual agenda” is “coming after our kids.” The exchange was part of a tense night of testimony over the district’s bullying policies and whether LGBT issues should be discussed in classrooms in Minnesota’s largest school district.

Anoka-Hennepin, lesbian couple settle Snow Days case in arbitration

By Andy Birkey | 01.31.11 | 9:19 am

The Anoka-Hennepin School District and a lesbian coupled elected by their peers as royalty of Champlin Park High School’s Snow Days celebration reached an agreement on Saturday that will allow Sarah Lindstrom and Desiree Shelton to walk into the ceremony together. The Southern Poverty Law Center had filed a lawsuit against the district on Friday on behalf of the couple; that suit has now been dropped.

Lawsuit filed against Anoka-Hennepin School District on behalf of lesbian couple

By Andy Birkey | 01.28.11 | 3:49 pm

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.