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Kids who object to university policies that support LGBTQ+ group members are increasingly pressing school boards in Minnesota and across the nation. This force includes requests to outlaw publications and Pride flags, as well as extensive requests to “opt out” of content produced by or pertaining to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
This pressure has been felt directly, including in St. Louis Park.
The St. Louis Park school board has developed a design plan that may serve as a roadmap for school board throughout Minnesota in response to calls to boycott books and silence the accents of the LGBTQ+ area.
In recent months, in the name of church, a group of parents in St. Louis Park attempted to employ Minnesota’s “opt-out rules” to forgive their children from reading books, participating in group discussions and learning from materials referencing the LGBTQ+ area. This law grants families a limited right to, without cause, to withdraw their children from a particular training and make sensible arrangements for option instruction.
In a Feb. 28 decision, the St. Louis Park school board carefully balanced parents’ requests and Minnesota’s legitimate requirements. This resolution confirms that students can be exonerated from particular school materials at their parents’ request. Meanwhile, it also upholds the Minnesota Human Rights Act’s (MHRA) obligation not to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and the district’s “core values of creating safe and inclusive learning and working environments in]its] schools”.
Parents are putting pressure on St. Louis Park and other school districts to ensure that all students have LGBTQ+ representation at school. In September 2023, Ham Lake parents objected to their school’s use of books with LGBTQ+ characters. The Worthington school board upheld the superintendent’s recommendation in January to require a teacher to hang Pride and Puerto Rican flags on the walls of his classroom.
School districts must take care to avoid discriminating against LGBTQ+ students and employees in response to requests like these. The state law prohibits discrimination in education based on protected class, including race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, marital status, familial status, status with regard to public assistance and sexual orientation.
The St. Louis Park resolution meets this high standard by allowing parents to review instructional materials like textbooks and related core materials created for educational purposes and choose whether to drop their child from a lesson. The resolution clarifies that instructional materials do not include teacher lesson plans, notes, classroom discussions, seat assignments, classroom or school décor, library materials not being used for instruction, classroom book collections, and the demographics/identity of school staff, students and families.
Blanket “opt outs” are disallowed, including content relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. Instead, the school board mandates that parents request that they go through specific instructional materials and look for alternative lessons within those reviewed materials.
The resolution of the school board stipulates that a parent cannot “opt out” a child from all books in a library or banners on a classroom wall that represent a community or identity offensive to the parent, especially a community or identity protected by the MHRA, and that a parent may do so for any reason.
Every family in the St. Louis Park school district benefits from St. Louis Park’s recognition of MHRA protections and the decision that no one can object to a protected class being represented in anything other than specifically designated instructional materials, including the families pushing for their children to be excused from engaging in any LGBTQ+ representation in books or other content.
They benefit because no St. Louis Park student has to worry that a family can ban books or limit classroom discussion about her race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, marital status, familial status, status with regard to public assistance, or sexual orientation.
Under current Minnesota law, the St. Louis Park school board serves as a model for other school boards. The board called on the Minnesota Legislature and Governor to go further in protecting students’ rights. To allow parents to remove their children from school instruction solely based on the representation of protected classes in instructional materials, Tim Walz should pass legislation that would veto the “opt out” law.
This change would advance the pursuit of equal protections and equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Minnesotans.
The “opt-out” law in Minnesota should be changed to further safeguard the LGBTQ+ community and other protected classes. In the meantime, St. Louis Park’s thoughtful application of Minnesota’s legal requirements should serve as a model for other districts that are under similar pressure from parents.
The ACLU of Minnesota employs staff attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson. February 27 was the last Star Tribune article about this subject.
