09.26.07
School District Ordered To Recognize Gay Student Group
A Minnesota school district that has been fighting to block a gay student group from using school facilities has been ordered by a federal judge to treat it the same as other organizations.
U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen issued a permanent injunction barring the Osseo school district from denying members of Straights and Gays for Equality, or SAGE, the use of facilities at on equal footing as other groups at Maple Grove Senior High.
Refusing to allow the LGBT student group to meet on campus while permitting other student groups to use facilities is a violation of the federal Equal Access Act, Ericksen ruled.
The injunction ends a two year battle by SAGE for recognition at Maple Grove, and makes permanent a temporary order issued last year.
The lawsuit claimed a violation of the federal Equal Access Act, which holds that public schools must extend the same privileges to all student-organized, non-curricular clubs.
The school board claimed that the groups which were officially recognized were “curricular” in that they related to courses, but that SAGE was “extra-curricular”.
In a footnote to her ruling Tuesday, Judge Ericksen called the school district’s argument “circular”.
“[T]he District deems certain student groups curricular because it sanctions them, but the District decides which groups to sanction. This type of decision making is exactly what the Equal Access Act is meant to prohibit.”
In April, 2006, Ericksen issued a preliminary injunction ordering the school district to recognize the club and to treat SAGE like any other student group when it came to access for meetings, avenues for communication and other rights.
Last December the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the temporary injunction.