Anoka-Hennepin School District Meets With Rights Group Suing Over Sexual Orientation Neutrality Policy Hoping To Settle Suit

The Anoka-Hennepin school district and the organizations suing it over its neutrality policy will meet Tuesday to try and reach a negotiated settlement, district officials said. The Pioneer Press reports that representatives from the district as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Right will all be present at the mediation session, which aims to find agreement between the three parties over differing interpretations of the district's policy and its alleged connection to bullying of gay students in the district. Representatives from the Department of Justice, which launched a federal investigation in to the district last fall over allegations of harassment and bullying, are also expected to be there, said Brett Johnson, a spokesperson for the district. "I have no idea if they'll be able to reach a settlement of not," Johnson said. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have two suits lodged against the district, both filed in the past two months. The suits represent six past and current students who say they were repeatedly harassed in district schools for their real or perceived sexual orientation and that too often teachers or school administrators didn't do enough to stop it. Among the accounts, students say they were called anti-gay slurs, pushed in to lockers, peed on, choked, and told they would go to hell. One dropped out of school and another transferred districts. The suit ascribes much of the blame at the district's Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy, which directs staff to stay neutral on discussions of LGBT issues. In reality, the plaintiffs say the policy prevents staff from protecting vulnerable students from bullying and perpetuates a hostile environment for LGBT students. The district says the policy keeps staff neutral on a controversial subject and that it is completely separate from bullying. Bullying against students for any reason, including their sexual identity, is not to be tolerated, district officials say. The policy, which is the only one of its kind in the state, was adopted in 2009 after the Anoka-Hennepin school board did away with a health-care directive that said "homosexuality not be taught/addressed as a normal, valid lifestyle." Attention on the new language was heightened after some people connected a string of seven student suicides between November 2009 and May 2011 to gay bullying. Advocates of LGBT rights say four of the students were bullied for being gay or perceived to be gay. The district has said that is a mistruth that has been perpetuated in the media. After sending crisis prevention teams in to the schools where the suicides occurred, district officials said there was no evidence found to suggest bully led to the deaths. Others in the community say the district's follow-up was not thorough enough. It is unknown how long mediation will last today or whether or not future sessions will be scheduled, Johnson said. The district reached a settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center on a different suit this spring after the organization sued on behalf of two lesbian students from Champlin Park High School originally told they could not walk in to a pep fest coronation together. The two were eventually allowed to walk. "We had success when we met with a federal judge on a Snow Days coronation, so of course we are hopeful we can reach an agreement that satisfied everyone involved," Johnson said in an email. Representatives from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights could not be reached for comment this morning.