Brody's Notes... Minnesota School District Changes "Neutral" Policy On Sexual Orientation

Anoka-Hennepin School Board In Session

By Brody Levesque | COON RAPIDS, MINNESOTA -- The Anoka-Hennepin school board which oversees the state's largest school district, adopted the “Respectful Learning Environment” policy on a 5-1 voice vote Monday night. The new policy replaces the Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy that required teachers to stay neutral when sexual orientation came up in class, a policy critics charge led to a climate of anti-gay bullying and the suicides of at least nine LGBTQ teens attending the district's schools.

Last summer, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of five students in the district for alleged disregard of bullying in schools under the neutrality policy. The Justice Department has also opened an investigation of the school district in conjunction with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Rau has scheduled the next round of settlement talks for March 1 and 2 in two lawsuits filed by students, former students and parents against the neutrality policy.

“Today is the first day in nearly 18 years that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District no longer has a harmful policy that singles out lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Although we would have preferred for the District to have repealed this stigmatizing policy without replacing it, we are pleased that the new policy expressly requires district staff to affirm the dignity and self-worth of all students, including LGBT students,” the SPLC said in a press release. “The repeal of this policy is an important first step, but the District must do much more to create a safe, welcoming, and respectful learning environment for all students, including LGBT and gender non-conforming students, and those perceived as such.”

The new policy takes effect immediately for more than 38,500 students and 2,800 teachers.

Yesterday's actions by the board occurred less than two weeks after Rolling Stone magazine published an article reporting on a “cluster” of nine teen suicides in the district with at least four of the nine either gay or perceived to be gay. Anoka-Hennepin officials condemned the article, calling it a “grossly distorted portrayal" of the school system and the old policy.

The new Anoka-Hennepin policy obligates the school system to providing “a safe and respectful learning environment for all students.” The new policy states  that when contentious political, religious, social matters or economic issues come up — it does not specifically cite sexuality issues — teachers should not try to persuade students to adopt particular viewpoint. It calls for teachers to foster respectful exchanges of views. It also says in such discussions, staff should affirm the dignity and self-worth of all students, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.