The Upper Midwest Law Center, on whose board I serve, got national and even international publicity when it announced a week ago that it was pursuing four cases that generally relate to Critical Race Theory, in both the public and private sectors. On Friday, UMLC filed a complaint against Independent School District 194, which covers Lakeville, Minnesota, and that district’s Superintendent of Schools.
The Lakeville schools put up “Black Lives Matter” posters in their buildings, which led students and parents to request that they also put up “All Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter” posters. The school district refused, saying:
“[ISD 194] does 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;” and “the All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter mottos were created specifically in opposition to Black Lives Matter” and that those messages “effectively discount the struggle the Black students have faced in our school buildings and that Black individuals face in our society as a whole.”
This seems like a clear case of viewpoint discrimination by the school district, in violation of the First Amendment. Normally I would expect a government agency faced with a hopeless lawsuit to throw in the towel, but the commitment to Critical Race Theory in Minnesota’s teachers’ union, which dominates most boards of education, runs deep, so maybe the district will fight it out.
The current battle over Critical Race Theory is a fight for the future of our country. If Critical Race Theory prevails, the America that we have known and loved is finished. The stakes couldn’t be higher. In this war, grass roots activism is critical. Parents must keep an eye on what is going on in their children’s classrooms, and normal Americans must start paying attention to school board elections rather than leaving them to the control of corrupt teachers’ unions. And, in addition to grass roots activism, litigation is necessary to enforce the constitutional rights of parents and students. That is where public interest law firms like the Upper Midwest Law Center come in.
This is the Complaint in the Lakeville school district case:
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