Three Iowa teachers who were disciplined for helping to facilitate a student-led drag show have reached a settlement after filing discrimination lawsuits against the Ankeny Community School District.
The district launched investigations into teachers Jill Bjorklund, Mollie Jo Blahunka and PJ Hurley in May 2022, after they approved or attended a drag show for students held on campus after school hours.
Students with the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) clubs at Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School hosted youth drag performers from the Central Iowa Youth Pride Pageant for the school clubs’ final meeting of the year, according to the plaintiffs’ complaint. Blahunka and Bjorklund were faculty sponsors for the school clubs, while Hurley was another teacher invited by students to attend.
According to the complaint, students voluntarily attended the event and “no one at the event was harmed or offended, nor was any educational purpose interrupted by any part of the event.”
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The event attracted controversy after clips of the drag performance went viral, prompting Ankeny to launch an investigation.
Ankeny Community Schools said in a statement that the event was not approved by school administration and did “not follow the correct protocols prior to the meeting.”
The plaintiffs disputed this statement. In the complaint, Blahunka alleged she spoke with the Ankeny High School activities director about the students’ desire to host an end-of-the-year celebration on campus in conjunction with the Southview GSA club, and later reserved the high school auditorium for the event.
According to the Des Moines Register, all three teachers were put on leave following the incident, with Bjorklund and Blahunka ultimately being suspended for a few days during the following school year. All three employees were banned from sponsoring school activities and threatened with termination for any future violations, according to the Des Moines Register. The teachers’ lawsuit also claimed the district filed ethics charges with the Iowa Board of Education, which eventually dismissed the charges.
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The teachers sued, accusing the district of discrimination against their speech in support of LGBTQ students and retaliation, in violation of their First Amendment rights. The complaint also says Blahunka identifies as a queer woman, Hurley as a gay man and Bjorklund as the mother of a transgender child.
After a yearslong legal battle in both state and federal court, the two parties reached a settlement just before the case was scheduled to go to trial on July 20.
According to the Register report, the district agreed to pay each teacher about $27,700 plus $67,000 for attorneys’ fees, totaling about $150,000.
A spokesperson for the school district said in the report that the matter had been “resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”
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Ankeny Community Schools and an attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
In May 2023, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed education bill SF 496 into law, which critics labeled the “Don’t say LGBTQ law.” The law forbade classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation for Kindergarten through sixth grade students, required school staff to notify parents if a student requested to use a different name or pronoun, and banned books containing descriptions or depictions of sex acts from all K–12 school libraries.
