After filing suit against Minnesota’s Champlin Park High School for sexual orientation discrimination, Desiree “Dez” Shelton (pictured) and Sarah Lindstrom have dropped their case — after the school district said they would let the lesbian couple walk together at a pep rally, where their classmates had voted them into the “Snow Days Pep Fest Royalty Court.” Would it shock you to hear the school district that originally planned to bar the pair from walking together is none other than Anoka-Hennepin School District, the same place where a student accused two teachers of bullying him and where 15-year-old Justin Aaberg was bullied to death?
Traditionally, Champlin Park’s “Snow Days” festival has students in the royal court walk through the school’s field house while an announcer reads off a few facts about each couple. Shelton and Lindstrom, both 18-year-old seniors, were going to be denied that opportunity because school officials didn’t want to, uh, offend their classmates. Oh, and to protect the safety of the two girls, who, school spokesman Brett Johnson says, would have been at risk of teasing. Instead of letting them WALK LIKE A BUNCH OF DYKES, administrators planned to cancel that part of Snow Days. So on Friday, NCLR and SPLC filed suit, claiming the school’s actions violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on sexuality.
A district spokeswoman said the Champlin Park High School principal didn’t want the young women to walk in together because he feared they would be teased, but the lawsuit said denying them that opportunity was discrimination and an infringement of their First Amendment rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed the lawsuit Friday afternoon on their behalf. Anoka-Hennepin schools spokeswoman Mary Olson said the women said they weren’t comfortable walking in with a male student. Principal Michael George was concerned about the reaction of other students to a lesbian couple walking in together, Olson said, so on Friday the district decided the royal court would arrive individually or accompanied by a parent or favorite teacher.
By Saturday, school officials must have realized the error of their ways, reaching a settlement agreement with the students, which meant the lawsuit was withdrawn. The agreement reached between students (represented in the lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the law firm Faegre & Benson) and the school district allows for students to walk in the pep rally with “a meaningful person in their life,” regardless of gender or relationship status. “All parties are pleased to announce that we have worked together, collaboratively, to arrive at an arrangement for introductions of elected royalty that is respectful and inclusive of all students,” reads a statement released by the district. Anoka-Hennepin school board chairman Tom Heidemann says the agreement is “win-win” for everyone.
Snow Days, scheduled for Monday, might be pushed back for a few days to allow more time for students to choose their escorts.
The lawsuit, which was “amicably” dismissed, according to both sides, now will be viewed as an opportunity for the school to consider its policy regarding activities “that will make our school communities inclusive and will enable us to realize the district-wide objective of honoring all students,” according to the statement. Students elect the 24 members of the Snow Days royalty. Twelve seniors and four students from each of the Brooklyn Park school’s other three grades are chosen, with an equal number of boys and girls. Shelton and Lindstrom were voted for by their friends, and claimed that two boys were willing to walk together to allow the girls to enter as a couple.
Well thank god, right? I mean, who doesn’t need to file a lawsuit every time a school in the Anoka-Hennepin School District — the state’s largest — decides it wants to discriminate against gay students? After all, this is the same school district whose superintendent Dennis Carlson, even after watching Justin Aaberg and five other teens take their own lives in the 2009, continues to insist there is “no evidence that bullying played a role in any of our students deaths.” But there is evidence queer students’ rights to receive the same education and opportunities in school is continually violated!
Ian
I’m moving to Minnesota in 2 yrs for work reasons and I work with kids & teens. I can’t wait from what I am hearing that Minnesota is very mixed in being pro-gay or not, depending where in the state one lives, to get there to pull my sleeves up and start educating the more discrimination challenged areas.
Max the Communist
Go Dez and Sarah! And let’s keep an eagle eye on Anoka-Hennepin District. They are a menace to safe, respectful education for LGBT youth.
Cam
I just LOVE the school districts excuse that they thought the other students might be offended…you know….the same OTHER STUDENTS WHO VOTED FOR THESE TWO WOMENT TO WALK THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
That B.S. excuse is similar to the excuse in places like Saudi Arabia… Yes, we want women to where these bhurka’s for their OWN protection.
Charli
Heloooooo welcome ALL heteros! Welcome
to 2011,where discrimination is NOT tolerated
anymore sugar! Get used to it b/c looks like
this new generation is coming OUT in fullforce!
I guess they could easily say that seeing the lil
hetero kids “could” offen THEM!!! Get over yourselves
and stop thinkIng you ARE superior!!
Kudos to those kids! Be who you are b/c you
only have one short life, don’t let bigots control
your destiny ! I make a point to be out wherever I am!
Just for the sole fact to let ALL bigots know and understand
that we are here,and we ALL pay our taxes the same and
we are coming for OUR CIVIL rights! It been A
longtime coming!
Shannon1981
Congrats Dez and Sarah! Let’s all stand up and show these schools we aren’t buying their BS, and we aren’t tolerating it anymore either. And yes, keep an eye on this school district.
Francis
What’s so amazing is that they were going to CANCEL the entire event than allow these two ladies to couple up. That right there shows you the level of pure hate they have for LGBT people. They are willing to eliminate something all the kids do and then transfer the blame on the lesbians.
But luckily, this story has a happy ending. Congrats to Dez and Sarah for making things happen and taking a stand! This is what it’s going to take in these bigoted areas to really create change or at the very least, end discrimination to a certain extent. Lawsuits, social unrest, and simply not taking no for an answer.
DeGuyz in Mississippi
This school district has to realize the position they put themselves in. Hopefully the state will enact the laws to allow them and all schools across the country to put a stop to the violations that will in the end, put them in financial ruins.
Help remind the lawmakers to do what you ask.http://education.change.org/petitions/view/demand_state_legislators_to_enact_a_zero_tolerance_harassment_law_in_every_state
DOW
it’s very simple in my mind… they are all walking in as individuals so they are voted as individuals and not couples… pick to the two most homophobic males as the royalty.