The case, which has been going on for more than two years, has drawn a lightning-storm of controversy that had Christian conservatives and church-state watchdogs fighting alongside one another.

In 2009, the ACLU of Minnesota filed suit against the Minnesota Department of Education, the school and the school’s sponsors.

The case made for strange bedfellows. Katherine Kersten, a conservative Christian columnist at the Star Tribune and longtime critic of Islam, first broke the news in early 2008 that the school might be breaking the law. She followed up with a report from a Republican activist who also happened to be a substitute teacher at the school.

The ACLU, an organization that Kersten has been sharply critical of, picked up on the story and launched an investigation and then a lawsuit.

On Thursday, the school’s sponsor, the Minnesota Department of Education and the ACLU reached a partial settlement in the case. Under the terms, the Minnesota Department of Education must require charter schools to sign an annual statement declaring under penalty of law that the schools are not promoting religion.

In addition, the parties to the case released a set of facts that demonstrate the entanglement of religion with state in the school, which was called Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA). It closed last year because it could not find a charter school sponsor.

The facts released in the case paint a portrait of a school using public money to advance a religious mission: the school illegally transferred money to its religious landlords, specifically an organization called Minnesota Education Trust whose mission is to “present the image of Islam.”

The school was marketed to Muslims as a school that followed Islamic law. Landlords for the school prohibited anything in the building that went against Islamic teaching. In its IRS tax filings, the school’s sponsor listed as its accomplishments that it created a “charter school to promote the message of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims,” and numerous fundraising materials mentioned the school as part of promoting Islam in Minnesota.

When the Muslim American Society of Minnesota conducted after school religious trainings, the school gave the group free space, the school did not offer buses to students who did not want to attend the trainings, and even threatened to mark them absent if they didn’t attend. Many of the teachers at the school were the instructors for the after school courses and those who didn’t teach Islamic religious courses were not allowed to leave until the courses were ended for the day.

Textbooks used during class time to teach Arabic focused on the Quran.

Over $3 million in state and federal funds went to benefit two religious entities—the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society and the Minnesota Education Trust—in the form of improvements to the TIZA campuses and rent payments. When those campuses were remodeled—in one case to install foot sinks for use in Islamic religious tradition—the landlords provided no financial support.

“The Court’s decision and our settlement with the Department of Education are bittersweet. We remain sad that TIZA’s administrators and supporters hunkered down for years rather than changing their practices to conform to the Constitution and Minnesota law,” Charles Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU-MN, said in a statement on Monday. “Sadly, this case highlights the problems that can arise from the lack of transparency in public charter school laws.”

The ACLU’s attorney’s say they asked for the release of the facts of the case because TIZA had repeatedly sought to keep them from public inspection.

“We are pleased with the court order because we have long believed that TIZA misused the court’s protective order to maintain the secrecy of documents that the public has a right to see, because they show how TIZA was using public funds,” said Peter Lancaster, an attorney with Dorsey and Whitney who worked on the case.

Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenfernandez/2370347860/">John Steven Fernandez, Flickr</a>

Some teachers at Anoka-Hennepin School District have failed a teachers test because they refused to affirm that the district’s policy limiting discussions of LGBT issues in the district’s schools is intended to make “students feel safe.”

The district’s policy is at the heart of a culture war in the district and is the subject of a lawsuit by six students and their parents who say the district has not taken appropriate steps to prevent bullying against students who are, or are perceived to be, LGBT.

City Pages reported on Wednesday that a training test required by all teachers contains the question: “One of the goals of the Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy is to ensure all of our students feel safe and respected in our classrooms and/or while participating in school activities: true or false?”

City Pages notes that several teachers in the district are refusing to answer “true,” which causes them to fail the training test.

The policy states that “Anoka-Hennepin staff, in the course of their professional duties, shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.”

Yet, the policy only targets LGBT issues. Mentions of heterosexuality are not covered by the policy, and that’s part of the reason the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have filed suit against the district on behalf of six students and their families.

The federal Department of Education and the Department of Justice have also launched investigations into the district after the suicide deaths of nine students in the past two years, several of whom were known to identify as LGBT.

CityPages also produced a cover story this week highlighting the suicide death of Erik Turbenson, who was a student at Anoka-Hennepin ten years ago. He was openly gay and took his own life after being bullying.

U.S. Sen. Al Franken called for an “explicit ban” on discrimination against LGBT students in a civil rights hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

Franken cited the high-profile lawsuit against Anoka-Hennepin School District, where six students and their families allege pervasive anti-LGBT harassment.

“My understanding is that LGBT persons are covered under the hate crimes act, and to the same extent that other groups like minorities and women [are],” Franken said. ”This Congress has said we need to protect LGBT Americans in the same way we protect other vulnerable groups, doesn’t it follow that we should protect LGBT students from bullying to the same extent that we protect other groups?”

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division head Thomas Perez responded that bullying against LGBT students has grown in recent years.

“The bullying of kids who are LGBT is probably our largest growth area in our docket,” Perez said, citing investigations in multiple states. ”And we have an investigation in your neck of the woods in a matter,” referring to allegations of discrimination in the Anoka-Hennepin School District.

Perez said the issue was one of “safety, whether it’s kids who are gay or kids who are Muslim or kids who speak English with an accent.”

“This is an emerging growth area, I regret to say. That’s why the president had a day-long summit on bullying and I very much appreciate you leadership in this area,” Perez told Franken, offering his support for the Student Non-Discrimination Act. ”Kids are dying, kids are being brutally assaulted, kids are scared.”

Franken mentioned the suit brought by the National Center for Lesbian Rights on behalf of a gay student at Anoka-Hennepin who was a “victim of harassment.”

“A student who I will call ‘E.R.’ faced physical assaults and pervasive bullying based solely on her sexual orientation and appearance,” Franken said. ”Sadly, harassment for students based on sexual orientation and gender identity is frequent and disturbing, and while the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act provides some protection based against sexual orientation based violence, it’s clearly not doing enough for LGBT students.

Franken said that “we need an explicit ban” on discrimination against LGBT students in schools.

The Anoka-Hennepin School District and lawyers for six students who sued the district over bullying began talks this week in an attempt to reach a settlement. While those talks were underway, the Parents Action League submitted a petition to the school board urging it not to budge on a policy that limits discussion of LGBT issues in the schools. And PAL came under scrutiny by other parents who questioned the group’s ties to the Minnesota Family Council.

The district and lawyers for the students met early this week in hopes that a settlement could be reached in the lawsuit. Both sides have declined to comment on the talks other than to say they were productive. The dialogue ended Tuesday without resolution, and no more discussions have been scheduled.

On Monday, the Parents Action League, a group of conservative Christian parents in the district, appealed to school officials to maintain its “neutrality policy,” a directive enacted two years ago that limits discussions of LGBT issues in the district and one that the lawsuit alleges creates a hostile environment for LGBT students.

“I’m here on behalf of the Parents Action League to support the sexual orientation policy,” said Lori Thompson at Monday’s school board meeting. “It is an excellent policy. It honors the rights of all parents and guardians. We feel that teachers should not be injecting their personal views in the classroom on any subject.”

Thompson said the group had gathered 1,052 signatures.

“We, the Parents Action League, along with every person who put their name on the petition, are asking the board to please keep the sexual orientation policy in place and keep controversial social issues at home where they belong,” Thompson said.

After Thompson addressed the board, Kevin Peterson of Brooklyn Center also urged that the policy be maintained — and then revealed he was once gay.

“I used to be gay, back in the ’80s and ’90s,” he said. “I used to be a member of Act Up and marched in a few gay pride parades.”

“I was trying to get our agenda into high schools and even elementary schools,” he added.

Peterson claimed that most people who are LGBT don’t want to be.

“Most people with same-sex attraction don’t like this about themselves and don’t want to act on those attractions,” he said. “In other words most homosexuals are not gay, and we gay activists knew that it was very important to reach those sexually confused people. We wanted the young guys top know that they shouldn’t be confused about those attractions that they should understand that they can’t possibly change and gay is good.”

He said it was all about recruitment.

“What I was doing in effect was recruiting them to be gay and get into the lifestyle. That’s what happened to me when i got into college.”

But not all testifiers at Monday night’s meeting were in support of the policy. Parent Melissa Thompson said many forms of diversity are discussed in Anoka-Hennepin schools and questioned why sexual orientation is being singled out.

“You don’t need to take on a belief to respect the person who has it,” she said. “We openly discuss and recognize all kinds of diversity from cultural to religious to economic, so I ask you why we refuse to acknowledge anything gay in our schools?”

She added, “Nobody is asking that homosexuality be taught, quite simply because it can’t be. But just because someone refuses to believe that people are born gay doesn’t change that fact for a gay person. The idea that if we deny something that offends us it will disappear is childish, hurtful and hardly neutral.”

Thompson was also critical of the activities of the Parents Action League.

“I recently received an email directly from Lori Thompson of the Parents Action League soliciting my signature. She received my email address from the Minnesota Family Council, and I have a copy of the email for you all to see that,” she said, holding up a copy of the email. “It was directly solicited from this political group that has made a career out of disrespecting children in our district. I want to show the connection.”

PAL’s spokesperson, at least in the past, has been Barb Anderson who works for the Minnesota Family Council. Anderson recently appeared on the radio program of Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality, an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a hate group. In that interview, Anderson said she’s tried to get “ex-gay” therapy into the district’s schools and blamed LGBT groups for the bullying of LGBT students.

Thompson raised another concern about PAL to the school board; she says the group has been soliciting signatures from students.

“The other concern I have is the fact that they solicit signatures from children as young as 13,” she said. “Now, they want to paint us as being inappropriate in regard to children, but to put children in that position is beyond unacceptable.”

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.”

The petition reads:

Whereas homosexual behavior exposes participants to many life-threatening health risks; and whereas the classroom environment needs to be solely focused on academics; Therefore, we the undersigned citizens of Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11 do whole heartedly support and desire that the School Board adhere to the following statement in the AH District 11 Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy: ‘Teaching about sexual orientation is not a part of the District adopted curriculum; rather, such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches, or community organizations. Anoka-Hennepin staff, in the course of their professional duties, shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.’

In addition, the group is sending out a flier asking for support for the group.

“If you are a taxpayer in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, please read the attached flyer,” an email sent last week said. “The Parents Action League (PAL) would really appreciate your support. Thank you. May God Bless You and keep you in His care.”

The flier reads:

ALERT TO PARENTS/CITIZENS IN ANOKA-HENNEPIN SCHOOL DISTRICT #11!

Do you want your tax dollars used to promote a radical homosexual agenda in our public schools?

On February 9, 2009 the Anoka-Hennepin District #11 School Board passed the Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy (Neutrality Policy). This policy makes it clear that “Teaching about sexual orientation is not a part of the District adopted curriculum; rather, such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches, or community organizations. Anoka-Hennepin staff, in the course of their professional duties, shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.”

This policy strengthens the authority and rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their own children—especially on sensitive topics such as sexual orientation. The Gay Equity Team and other radical homosexual activists in our school district are fighting to overturn this policy.

You can help!

Go to www.parentsactionleague.org and sign the online petition. Tell your friends and neighbors in District 11 to do the same. Show your support to the School Board. Let them know we want them to maintain the Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy so our classrooms stayed focused on core academics.

This advertisement was paid for by the Parents Action League.

From its inception, PAL has advocated for “reparative therapy,” a type of counseling that alleges it can cure gays and lesbians of their homosexuality.

PAL spokesperson Barb Anderson, who also works with the Minnesota Family Council, recently told Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a hate group, that PAL is seeking the eliminate gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in the district.

“Because of the Equal Access act they feel that they have to allow this in the schools and they have not been able to put a stop to it, but there are parents getting organized and trying to plead the case that this really is harmful to students,” she said. “It is not providing them with healthy information. None of this is based on truth or scientific fact, especially if they are telling kids they are born this way.”

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. The suit follows a similar lawsuit against the district filed in July and brings the number of students suing the school to six.

A student at Jackson Middle School in Champlin, identified in the complaint only as E.R., endured bullying from the first day she transferred to the school as an 8th grader, according to the complaint. She was “subject to severe and pervasive harassment in gym class,” the complaint states. “When E.R. attempted to use the girls’ locker room for the first time, other female students openly mocked her, saying things like, ‘That’s a boy – there’s no boys allowed in here,’ and calling her a ‘he/she.’”

Instead of reprimanding the offending students, the complaint alleges, E.R. was told by school staff that she must change her gym clothes at a separate time as the others students.

“Predictably, further isolating and stigmatizing E.R. served only to increase the harassment,” the complaint contends. “The other students continued to mock her in class, saying that she had to use the locker room separately from other students because she ‘doesn’t know what locker room to use’ and calling her slurs like ‘he/she’ and ‘faggot.’”

The harassment extended beyond gym class to other areas of the school, according to the complaint: School administrators prohibited E.R. from eating lunch with other students and instructed her to walk through the hallways at times when other students were present.

“School officials made clear that these steps were taken as disciplinary measures against E.R., and never suggested that these steps were intended to protect her from harassment,” the court filings state. “In April, school officials cut E.R.’s class schedule to a half day.”

E.R.’s claims are similar to those of five other district students who are suing based on civil rights violations. The lawsuit’s claim that a discriminatory policy based on sexual orientation, dubbed the “neutrality policy,” has hindered staff from addressing anti-LGBT bullying and created an atmosphere that isn’t safe for LGBT students or students perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual.

“This is yet another incredibly distressing example of how the district’s shameful policy has hurt kids,” NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell said in a statement. “The district has to stop turning its back on children, and recognize that its illegal policy that singles out those who are LGBT is the reason that so many children in their schools continue to be tormented — verbally, physically, and emotionally — every day.”

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.

The district has been at the center of a firestorm in the last year as a rash of suicides by LGBT students and reports of bullying created a sustained protest by parents in the district on both sides of the issue. In the letter, the SPLC and NCLR state that the district is violating federal law by not creating a safe educational environment and and indicate they’ll file a lawsuit if the situation is not rectified.

“While we appreciate that the District has recently taken some superficial steps to address bullying, our investigation confirms that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (‘LGBT’) students and those perceived as LGBT within the District remain in jeopardy in a hostile and alienating environment,” the groups wrote. “School authorities’ failure to adequately respond to ongoing harassment violates established law and our clients’ constitutional rights.”

The groups referenced three current and former students who suffered relentless bullying and harassment in Anoka-Hennepin schools.

“District authorities failed to properly respond to repeated reports of verbal and physical harassment, in violation of their legal obligations,” the groups wrote. “These incidents and others like them appear to be part of a pervasive pattern of hostility against LGBT students within District schools, which has had dire consequences.”

Over the past year, reports of bullying, harassment and even suicides have put the district in the national spotlight, prompting parents, teachers and students in the district to call for change. Tammy Aaberg, whose gay son attended Anoka High School and took his own life last July, has spoken of the need to rescind the school’s “neutrality policy”.”

At the same time, a group of religious conservatives with ties to the Minnesota Family Council have pushed back, saying that no LGBT content should be included in the district. Barb Anderson, who works for the Family Council and helped found the Parents Action League, recently told an anti-gay radio host that she successfully blocked any changes to make schools safer for LGBT students.

The SPLC called the neutrality policy a “gag rule.”

“The gag policy is anything but neutral,” Sam Wolfe, lead attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement on Tuesday. “It is rooted in homophobia and sustains a hostile environment harmful to all students. The District must repeal this dangerous policy.”

Here’s the letter the SPLC and NCLR sent to the Anoka-Hennepin School District:

ahsd-letter-0511 –

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota is demanding that the Northfield School District stop filtering LGBT internet content on the district’s computers. Calling it unconstitutional, the group sent a letter to the district calling for a halt to the filtering as well as a data practices request to identify how the filters got put into place. The move is part of the ACLU’s broader “Don’t Filter Me” project to prevent filtering of LGBT content.

”LGBT youth face a lot of challenges growing up in today’s society. The websites that are being filtered by Northfield are important resources for LGBT teens to go to for support and help, it is unfortunate that they would block these sites,” said ACLU-MN attorney Teresa Nelson in a statement.

The ACLU received a tip from Northfield students that the computers were filtering LGBT resources. Northfield uses a software called Lightspeed which contains a filter called “education.lifestyles” defined as “Education about lifestyles — gay, lesbian, alternate.”

Already the campaign has been successful in getting those filters removed from a Kansas City school district, and the ACLU has identified filters in Virginia, Ohio and New Jersey.

“There is no legitimate reason why any public school should be using an anti-LGBT filter,” Joshua Block of the ACLU LGBT Project said. “This is not a case where overbroad filters are accidentally filtering out LGBT websites. These filters are designed to discriminate and are programmed specifically to target LGBT-related content that would not otherwise be blocked as sexually explicit or inappropriate. Public schools have a duty to provide students with viewpoint-neutral access to the Internet.”

The superintendent of a central Minnesota school district says a lawsuit against it by an anti-abortion legal group is a misunderstanding and that the litigation came out of the blue last Thursday. A representative of the Alliance Defense Fund, a national group that has sued numerous school districts, says the school should not be surprised by the lawsuit and claims it continues to violate students’ rights by not listing the All Life Is Valuable Club as “curricular.”

“The bottom line is, we have not denied access,” Dr. Jim Behle, St. Michael-Albertville School District Superintendent-elect, told St. Michael Patch. “The student group can meet in our school; basically, what the lawsuit wants us to do, we have already done. There’s a lot of misinformation being alleged.”

“Obviously [ADF] believed, and we’re kind of confused by this, that for some reason this group was going to be denied,” he said. “There’s obviously some confusion someplace by the national organization that filed this.”

But the ADF told the Minnesota Independent there’s is no confusion.

“There is no reason for the school district to be ‘surprised’ as it has been violating the club’s constitutional rights for several months now,” said ADF’s senior counsel David Cortman. “The district is currently taking the same position that they have throughout this entire process.”

ADF, which represents ALIV, says the group should be considered a “curricular” group and have all the same access the other educational student groups do, including meeting during school hours on school property. ADF says the group could be tied to health classes, for instance.

According to the lawsuit, ALIV’s curriculum involves “faith and religion, life, abortion, abstinence from premarital sex, personal responsibility, keeping and raising children in the event of pregnancy.”

“The school district still has the opportunity to immediately end this case by reversing its position and granting the pro-life club official recognition, just like that which is granted to the book club and the anime club, among others,” said ADF’s Cortman.

The ADF has been prolific in suing various educational institutions. In the last month alone, the group has been involved in actual or threatened legal action against at least six educational institutions.

In one instance, ADF threatened to file suit if the University of Buffalo’s student government organization didn’t recognize the group Students for Life. In a letter, ADF said the process was taking too long and threatened litigation if the situation wasn’t rectified. The university relented.

ADF won a case against a Chicago high school that asked a student who wore a “Be Happy, Not Gay” t-shirt to change the slogan to “Be Happy, Be Straight” or “The Truth Cannot Be Silenced,” which is a slogan of ADF’s anti-gay Day of Truth.

Last month, ADF filed a federal lawsuit after a New Hampshire zoning board denied an application by a man who wanted a blinking Jesus sign near the highway. The zoning board said the sign would distract drivers, but after the suit the body reversed its decision.

The legal group won a case in Arkansas that will allow a third grader to distribute Christian church pamphlets on school property during school hours, and in Pennsylvania ADF is suing a school district because it prevented a student from distributing church fliers during school hours.

A California school district backed down just hours after the ADF filed suit following the school’s decision that a student’s Christian talent routine would possibly violate the separation of church and state.

ADF boasts a budget of $32.7 million and was founded by a consortium of religious right entities including Campus Crusade for Christ, Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, which was recently listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Lawsuits against schools are not the group’s only activities. In the month of March, the group was involved in legal action against a number of public and private entities, as well. ADF is suing an Arizona county on behalf of a church that had failed to file its property taxes or an exemption to avoid the taxes. The county is attempting to collect three years of backed taxes.

The ADF is also currently representing a woman who was fired as a counselor for the Centers for Disease Control after she told a gay client that the client’s lifestyle was contrary to her religious beliefs, and the group just lost a case in which a conservative Christian mother wanted to home-school her child over the objections of her ex-husband. A court ruled in favor of the father to send his daughter to public school.

The group is also suing an LGBT group called Bash Back! which protested a Michigan church. The church is suing for civil damages.

Closer to home, the group joined a suit in Wisconsin to overturn that state’s domestic partner registry for same-sex couples.

And in New York City, ADF is suing prevent an ordinance that requires anti-abortion clinics, called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), to include in their materials that they do not provide abortions or contraceptives. CPCs have a history of misleading women who have unintended pregnancy into their clinics by insinuating they provide a full range of options.

The national religious right legal group Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota last week on behalf of a student who is trying to form an anti-abortion rights group at the St. Michael-Albertville High School. The All Life Is Valuable (ALIV) Club was denied permission to become an “officially recognized club” because school administrators said it didn’t “support the student body as a whole.”

According to the complaint (below), the ADF takes issue with the fact that certain clubs are granted access while others are not.

“Apparently the Diversity club, the Environmental club, and the Anime club (among others), however, are deemed to ‘support the student body as a whole’ as they were all permitted to become officially recognized clubs,” the complaint states. “The ALIV Club has been relegated to second-class status and is only permitted to meet unofficially before or after school and receives none of the other club benefits.”

The group is suing under First and Fourteenth amendment grounds. “The Equal Access Act, along with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, prohibit governmental discrimination of this type and guarantee religious and political student clubs access and treatment equal to that of other non-curriculum related student clubs.”

According to the filing, ALIV brings students together to talk about “faith and religion, life, abortion, abstinence from premarital sex, personal responsibility, keeping and raising children in the event of pregnancy, leadership, community service, peer pressure, promoting respect and dignity for all others, reading and studying various governmental and political issues, and the attainment of knowledge,” and the group has a “desire to share their Christian faith with fellow members and students through ALIV Club activities.”

Minnesota has seen several court cases pertaining to student groups. In 2008, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a gay-straight alliance in a Twin Cities suburban school district. In 2003, the ADF sued another Minnesota school district that did not allow students to pass out fliers for a Bible-study group. The school subsequently changed its policies.

The ADF also sued the University of Minnesota on behalf of the Maranatha Christian Fellowship because Maranatha wanted the ability to discriminate in its membership as a student group. The university required all student groups to sign a nondiscrimination policy in order to use university resources, and later changed its policies to allow discrimination among student groups’ officers but not in general membership.