Lakeville school board votes to remove "Black Lives Matter" posters
LAKEVILLE, Minn. — School officials in Lakeville voted on Tuesday to remove inclusive posters with the term "Black Lives Matter" throughout the school system.
Roughly 3,000 copies of posters utilizing inclusionary language are on the walls of Lakeville school buildings. There are eight variations, but two of them have the term "Black Lives Matter."
No teacher is required to put any of the posters up, but some parents and students complained that teachers were not given options of slogans like "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter."
"They're a little bit bigger than a piece of paper," said Laura Fangel, the mother of a Lakeville student. "I think they're 11 by 14. They're colorful."
The issue has been in and out of the court system since 2022. Next month, the court will require the parties to gather in a room to settle the issue.
Attorneys who focus on constitutional and First Amendment laws wonder how the court could rule on issues they consider ideological and not necessarily legal.
"I think the question is, in an argument like this, what is the harm that the individuals who are bringing this suit suffered?" said Meg Kane, an education law attorney. "You can't create your own harm and say 'I want this harm resolved.' The whole point of a public school is you're going to get contesting ideas, contesting civil rights."
The cost to design and print the posters was more than $10,000, according to the district.
WCCO has reached out to the school district and plaintiffs in the case for comment.
On Tuesday night, the school board voted to remove the posters and replace them with a new "academic excellence" theme of posters.
