Anoka-Hennepin District, Union Leader Comment on Lawsuit

The northwestern corner of Fridley is part of the Anoka-Hennepin school district—and, as of last week, part of .

The part of Fridley that is in the district is along the Mississippi River, north of 79th Way NE and west of Main Street NE.

In response to phone and email messages left for Fridley's representative on the Anoka-Hennepin school board, Scott Wenzel, a district spokesperson sent a press release (see PDF) and this statement, dated July 21, 2011:

The Anoka-Hennepin School District is reviewing the complaint initiated today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). The district takes strong exception to the outrageous media statement the district is not concerned about the safety of its students.

Anoka-Hennepin awaits a response from the SLPC and NCLR on its invitation to help the district train and prepare for the upcoming school year.  Anoka-Hennepin has been recognized as a pro-active leader in the state of Minnesota on bullying prevention. “We are always willing to improve upon our practice as it relates to the safety of students,” said Superintendent Dennis Carlson

Due to data privacy laws we’re not able to comment on any specifics in the complaints. We are confident that as a school district we are complying with the law and that the policies, practices and procedures we have in place are ensuring the safety of our students.

Minnpost has a Q&A interview with the president of the Education Minnesota teachers' union in Anoka-Hennepin, Julie Blaha, on the lawsuit and related issues. On the district's neutrality policy toward issues of sexual orientation, Blaha said:

Neutrality is inherently confusing. For some people, it just means silence; we’re not going to talk about this. For some people, it means, well, I need to be able to say both sides of the story. For some people, it means, I need to be factual. It really got confusing.