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Staff Reports

Principal Who Allowed Anti-Gay Anti-Abortion Christian Band To Preach Play At School Resigns

Dunkerton High School 

DUNKERTON, IOWA– Mike Cooper, principal of Dunkerton High School- located 70 miles northwest of Iowa City- who allowed members of the Christian hard rock band Junkyard Prophet to perform at a student assembly and espouse their anti-gay, anti-abortion views while showing students images of fetuses that had apparently been aborted is resigning, according to school district officials.

Dunkerton Superintendent Jim Stanton told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Tuesday that Cooper had resigned on Monday, but will remain as principal through the end of this school year. Stanton said Cooper's decision is not related to Cooper's recommendation that the district invite the band Junkyard Prophet to perform at last week's assembly, and said the plan had been "in the works" for nearly a month.

"He simply wants to be a superintendent," Stanton said, acknowledging that the timing of the announcement suggested there might be more to it.

A reporter for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier told LGBTQNation that Cooper had declined to comment about his pending departure, nor did he respond Wednesday to inquiries by the Associated Press.

Superintendent Stanton said the group was invited to share “a very strong anti-violence, anti-drug, anti-alcohol” message, but many of their views didn’t conform to the district’s teaching of tolerance, and now acknowledges it was a mistake to invite them. Stanton apologised to students last week and said he was shocked by the group's message, which he said contradicts the message of tolerance and acceptance that the school district stresses. He added that the group apparently changed and misrepresented its total message going into Thursday’s appearance.

The band is affiliated with the Minnesota group, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group due to its extremist anti-gay views and its spreading of falsehoods and demeaning propaganda about LGBTQ people.