On the day of the board meeting the district building was packed. Students, teachers, and parents arrived to show their support (mostly for keeping the posters up). Those who couldn’t get into the room got in line and were able to take the spots of anyone who left. There were around 30 people in line, and most watched the livestream of the meeting. A few people left the line to return home, but for the most part, those in line stayed and showed their support by banging on the walls and cheering when someone they agreed with spoke. During the 30 minutes of public comment, names were randomly called of those who had signed up to speak beforehand. Out of 11 total speakers, 8 were in favor of keeping the signs up, but 3 spoke against them. The speakers varied, including parents, teachers, students, and veterans. Emotions were definitely running high, and by the end, many of those in line had left as the impending decision was clear. There was a 4/3 vote in favor of the posters being removed. When the board members voted to remove the posters (after several failed compromises and alternate decisions), many were extremely distraught. One audience member holding a diversity poster was so upset they tore it up when the decision was made. After the meeting ended, most audience members left immediately, but some went up to talk to board members.
What happened
On January, 28th of this year, the school board met as normal at the District Office with the hot topic being the Diversity Poster series that included Black Lives Matter designs. The BLM posters became a large topic of discussion after a lawsuit was filed in 2021. The district ended up ruling in favor of the removal of the posters 4/3. The district claimed they would replace the poster series with one focused on academics.
History of the issue
The recent controversy around the inclusive posters series arose in 2021 with the Cajune v. Independent School District 194 Court Case. Our Lakeville School District originally declared the intent to create the poster series in March of 2021 and later founded the series in April. The district created the posters to express “an unwavering commitment to our Black students, staff, and community members.” Later that year several plaintiffs filed against the district after the statement that the district “did not approve of All Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter posters in the classrooms or other areas of the school, and teachers/school staff are not allowed to wear shirts with these sayings to school”.
The district court “concluded that the BLM posters constituted government speech that is not subject to scrutiny under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause”. Essentially, the district court rules in favor of the school district keeping up the poster series and refusing “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter.”
An appeal of the district court’s decision brought the case to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is one level beneath the Supreme Court. The Eighth Circuit reversed the part of the district decision regarding government speech. It found that the BLM posters “are expressions of private persons, not government speech.” As a result, the court found the district “had engaged in viewpoint discrimination by allowing the display of BLM posters but rejecting “All Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter” posters and shirts.” This new ruling in favor of the plaintiffs against the posters is what led to the recent discussions.
Interviews
Collectively the LSHS Journalism Club decided to issue an anonymous survey (on Instagram) to see what students thought about the issue. We collected 14 responses, and only 85.7% of those who responded had seen the posters before. 78.6% of the responses were in favor of keeping the poster while the other 21.4% agreed that they should be removed. 69.2% said the posters had affected them positively, while 14.3% said they were affected negatively. The percentage (14.3%) of students that said they had not seen the posters happened to be the same percentage that said they had been negatively affected by the posters, this could be a simple coincidence or could have revealed bias towards the inclusivity and BLM posters. This same correlation did not exist between those who had seen the posters (85.7%) and those who said they were positively affected (69.2%; It’s also important to note that only 13 students responded to this question). We asked those who responded what they would say if they were writing to Lakeville Area Schools, and we received a couple of answers that we feel represented both sides of the argument well.
“Keep up the inclusivity posters. For example the “Stronger Together” posters. Those kind of things. Those are good. But posters like the BLM posters should come down only because it’s a political topic in a school setting, the one place politics don’t belong. I personally think the whole topic is a little stupid. The district shouldn’t be sued for some stupid little posters. But at the same time, this is a school. A place for learning. Inclusivity is great, I love it. But if it’s this big of an issue then there are clearly greater problems than just these posters, and the district should focus on either wrapping up this topic and focusing on more important things, like supplies and safety, or they should get to the real problem behind being inclusive.”
“I think it’s stupid to take down posters. It doesn’t say anything about anyone not belonging and it has absolutely nothing to do with politics. The school should be allowed to hang these posters up and let kids feel more welcome and for them to know they have a safe place to be. They need to let students feel like it is a safe place and I don’t understand how they think it affects our academics. It has nothing to do with math, English, band, choir, etc., it has to do with the rights of the First Amendment and the fact that the U.S. often states that we are a free country. Then let us have the freedom to hang up harmless pictures.”
Responses also showed that some students were not very well informed on the issue. We received responses from students who thought the posters had already been taken down or that they were only up for Black History Month. Keep in mind, that only 12 of 14 responses had answered this question.
Looking Ahead
The vote by the school board was 4:3 in favor of removing the posters and replacing them with a new series. Superintendent Baumann explains the process going forward, that the school board will “work collaboratively with our school community to expand and refine our message with a future poster series that both promotes inclusivity and academic excellence.” Additionally, the school board “will leave the current posters in place” as a “comprehensive implementation plan” is developed. There has not been further comments on what this plan or process will look like. Thus, the question going forward is what this new series of posters will involve. Who will be designing them, who has a voice in that process, and who will be represented by them?
