MARSHALL — More than a year after area residents packed school board meetings to speak out about a rainbow flag hung in the Marshall Middle School cafeteria, some residents are filing suit against the school district in federal court.
A civil complaint filed Thursday in Minnesota District Court claims the school district violated a student’s First Amendment rights, by taking away a petition he had started in support of removing a rainbow LGBT pride flag in the cafeteria. A display of flags, including U.S. and international flags and a rainbow flag representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, was put up in the cafeteria in January 2020.
At the Feb. 18, 2020, Marshall School Board meeting, an eighth-grade student claimed he tried to circulate a petition about the rainbow flag, but the petition was taken away by middle school staff. The student also claimed that flag designs he and other students put on their lockers to represent them were taken down. At the same meeting, attorney Bill Mohrman and the Rev. Don LeClere of the Evangelical Free Church in Marshall both called for Marshall Public Schools to develop a “viewpoint neutral” policy for displays. If the district did not, Mohrman said, it could face a lawsuit.
The civil complaint filed Thursday also claims the school district’s policies on flag displays are not “viewpoint neutral.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, a group called Marshall Concerned Citizens and Grant Blomberg, are demanding a jury trial. However, hearing dates have not been set in the case yet, according to court documents.
The lawsuit is being brought against the school district, but also against MMS Principal Mary Kay Thomas, court documents said. Earlier this spring, MPS Superintendent Jeremy Williams said Thomas was placed on administrative pending an investigation. On Friday, Williams said he couldn’t comment on whether Thomas being on administrative leave was connected to the lawsuit.
As of Friday morning, Williams said he had not yet been formally notified of the lawsuit.
