Lakeville school district settles lawsuit over Black Lives Matter posters

Lakeville Area Schools has agreed to pay $30,000 to the Upper Midwest Law Center to settle a lawsuit over school posters displaying the message Black Lives Matter.

The school board approved the settlement agreement earlier this month, and a judge dismissed the lawsuit Wednesday.

In a statement, district spokeswoman Grace Olson said, “We appreciate the many different perspectives shared. Lakeville Area Schools remains committed to continuing to partner with our families and community to provide a safe, respectful, engaging, rigorous, and collaborative learning environment where every student belongs, is valued and can succeed.”

The lawsuit, filed against the district in 2022 and reinstated by the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last June, accused the district of violating civil and free speech rights when it rejected requests to give equal space for All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter messaging in the schools.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Bob and Cynthia Cajune and Kalynn Kay Aaker, along with her four children. They were represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center, a conservative nonprofit law firm.

In a statement on its website, the Upper Midwest Law Center said it “celebrates a favorable settlement” of the case.

“This settlement ensures that viewpoint discrimination will not be tolerated in Minnesota’s public schools, and it reaffirms the principle that School Districts must be politically neutral and that all political viewpoints should be allowed equal expression,” Doug Seaton, president of the law center, said in the statement.

The dispute over those messages dates back to 2020, when district leaders initially told teachers not to display Black Lives Matter signs because it violated the district’s goal of maintaining political neutrality.

Months later, the district approved and paid for the printing of eight inclusivity posters — two of which had the slogan Black Lives Matter and the statement: “At Lakeville Area Schools, we believe Black Lives Matter and stand with the social justice movement this statement represents. The poster is aligned to School Board policy and an unwavering commitment to our Black students, staff and community members.”

Olson estimated earlier this year that about 3,000 of the posters from the series were distributed across the district.

In January, after hours of debate, the school board voted 4-3 to remove the entire series of inclusivity posters from school buildings and replace them with signs that promoted academic excellence.

Last month, after another lengthy discussion, the board decided to scrap the idea of district-branded posters altogether.

Plaintiff Bob Cajune referenced the posters’ removal in the statement posted by the Upper Midwest Law Center.

“From the beginning, all we asked for from the school district was equal treatment for our views and a neutral environment for Lakeville kids to learn and focus on achieving excellence,” Cajune said. “The school district’s decision to end the poster series demonstrates that equality and focus, so we have now achieved everything we wanted in the lawsuit.

In the 5-1 school board vote approving the settlement, Carly Anderson cast the sole vote against the settlement, saying she believed the district did not see the case through and that a settlement was a “premature decision.” Board Member Amber Cameron was not present for the vote.