Detroit Lakes school board advances new policy amid rainbow sticker fight
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The Detroit Lakes school board has been trying to remove rainbow stickers from school grounds for months. It met again Monday night to debate a new policy that on its face is more neutral.
But it’s not entirely clear if the new language is still intended to ban the stickers, which some teachers display on their doors or desks to affirm that their classroom is a safe space for LGBTQ+ students.
The new resolution is much more expansive and says employees must maintain something called “viewpoint neutrality” and can’t display anything that seems primarily dedicated to a particular identity or viewpoint
It does not specifically mention rainbows.
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But last week, Detroit Lakes school board member Sanford Nelson, who has been leading the effort around the rainbow ban, seemed to indicate that the purpose of the new resolution is still to ban rainbow stickers.
“Now we have language that we know will meet the legal muster and move us forward with the July resolution,” he said.
However, at the board meeting Monday, Sanford was less forthcoming and would not directly answer whether the new policy would ban rainbow stickers.
The new policy passed its first reading and will be up for a vote again next month.
Community response
Since the July resolution banning rainbow stickers, there’s been a lot of pushback on the policy, as well as legal issues. Two parents and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota are suing the district over the ban, saying it violates students’ constitutional rights.
And many community members expressed opposition to the rainbow sticker ban at the Monday night meeting, where they filled a packed room that overflowed into an additional space. The audience also included many teachers in the district, some of whom were wearing rainbow lanyards.
Tom Seaworth, a former school board member, was one of about a dozen people who spoke in opposition to the ban. He said the board went about the ban in the wrong way without getting input from administrators and teachers.
He added that those stickers are worth keeping up even if they can help save the life of just one student who feels isolated.
“It's a symbol for kids who are struggling, and it does include the LGBQT community, but it’s not exclusive to them,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “And so, my concern is there are kids that are thinking of harming themselves. They know that they can go there.”
Seaworth said since his time on the board, it seems like the group has lost its way in terms of its decorum and methods of passing policies.
Proponents of the ban declined to comment after the meeting.
But Trevor Janich, a pastor in Detroit Lakes, recently told MPR News that the rainbow stickers don’t always signal inclusivity.
Janich said he knows of a student who was being bullied by another student who identified as LGBTQ+. Janich said the student who was bullied didn’t feel comfortable confiding in a teacher who displayed a rainbow sticker, because the student felt like the teacher wouldn’t take his side.
“The student walked up to the door and saw that pride sticker, and they felt that that teacher has already sided with that community, that they couldn't find help,” Janich said. “And that's where my heart broke.”
He added that all teachers should offer a safe space for all students, so the stickers shouldn’t be necessary.
“It's how we live with each other,” he said. “It's how we communicate with each other. It's building the trust and so — our teachers, our school, our administrators — we need to be building trust in our students so that they know they can come talk to us.”
Another hot button issue emerges
On Monday, the Detroit Lakes school board also took a vote on another hot button issue.
At board member Nelson’s request, it approved sending a motion to urge the Minnesota State High School League, which governs athletics in the state, to essentially prohibit transgender students from playing on girls’ sports teams.
Four board members voted in favor of the measure, and two voted against it.
One of the “no” votes came from Julie Smith-Yliniemi. She said the Minnesota Human Rights Act protects trans athletes, so changes to federal policy about trans people in women’s sports don’t apply here.
Plus, she said the district is already being sued for allegedly violating that state law with the rainbow ban.
“Putting this on our radar right now is like putting fuel on the fire, because there's no need, there's no … urgency,” she said.
As the school board’s designated representative to the league, Smith-Yliniemi Other is tasked with signing the letter that was approved. But she said she refuses to do so.
The district’s activities director is another designated representative, and the board said it’ll be up to him to sign it. But if he chooses not to, it’s not clear where the letter will land.
