Minnesota
Minnesota school district sued by students, parents over book ban policy
Two lawsuits were filed Monday against St. Francis Area School District over its book banning policy.
The ACLU of Minnesota and Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP filed one of the two lawsuits on behalf of two parents of children in the school district to end the “illegal banning of books from the district’s school libraries and classrooms.”
The lawsuit is in response to the district’s recent policy change that removed librarians and teachers from the book approval process and replaced them with a website called “Book Looks,” founded by Moms for Liberty, a group that has been at the forefront of the conservative movement targeting books that reference race and sexuality.
The website rates books on a scale of zero to five, with zero being “for everyone” and five being “aberrant.” St. Francis banned books with a rating of three and above, according to the ACLU. If a book is already in the library and has a rating of three or above and is challenged, policy dictates that the book must be removed.
Since the policy change, the lawsuit claims at least 46 books were removed or are in the process of being removed from St. Francis schools.
Education Minnesota-St. Francis also filed a separate lawsuit over the book ban on behalf of eight students in the district whose parents are teachers.
That lawsuit claims the district’s policy is “antithetical to the values of public education and encouraging discourse.”
Both lawsuits allege the policy violates the Minnesota Constitution and state law, saying school districts cannot discriminate against viewpoints expressed in books and that it violates the right to free speech and to receive information, as well as the right to a uniform and adequate education.
“The Book Looks rating system that is now binding upon the school district discriminates extensively based on viewpoint, particularly with regard to topics of gender, race, and religion,” the lawsuit said.
The teachers’ union says the Holocaust memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel is set to be removed after a recent complaint.
On Sunday, Book Looks announced it was ceasing operations and taking all reports down from its website.
“Our charge was always to help inform parents and it would appear that mission has been largely accomplished. We pray that publishers will take up the torch and be more transparent regarding explicit content in their books so that there will be no need for a BookLooks.org in the future,” an announcement posted to the website says.
St. Francis Area Schools says its legal team is reviewing documents from both lawsuits and determining next steps.
About 4,100 students attend the school district.
The Minnesota Lynx fell to the Connecticut Sun 90-89 on Monday night. Brittney Griner scored a season-high 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Kennedy Burke added 16 points off the bench, including two 3-pointers in the final three minutes for the Sun.
Burke made a 3-pointer with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Sun a five-point lead, and Griner added a shot in the lane with 1:25 left to make it 84-79.
Burke sank a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key with 44.5 seconds left for an 87-84 lead. Then, former Lynx forward Diamond Miller made a key block for Connecticut and Griner sealed it on a layup with 18.2 seconds left for another five-point advantage.
Leila Lacan had 13 points and Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 10 points and eight rebounds for Connecticut (5-16), which won its second road game of the season.
Kayla McBride scored 28 points for Minnesota (15-6) and Courtney Williams had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Natasha Howard scored 18.
Minnesota was without Napheesa Collier (left ankle) and Olivia Miles (right calf). Dorka Juhasz made her season debut and finished with three points in 25 minutes.
Griner scored 13 points in the first half to help Connecticut build a 48-44 lead.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s second attempt to become the WNBA’s career wins leader came up just short. The next chance will come Wednesday when Minnesota plays at Connecticut. Reeve is tied with Mike Thibault at 379 regular-season victories.
Up next
The teams play again on Wednesday in Connecticut.
Police are investigating after a man was arrested and another was injured in a shooting in Oakdale, Minnesota, on Thursday, according to officials.
Officers responded to a home on the 700 block of Gershwin Avenue around 10:24 p.m. for a report of an individual suffering from a gunshot wound. Police at the scene said they found a 32-year-old man who had been shot in the abdomen. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Witnesses, according to police, said the injured man was standing near a bonfire in the backyard of the residence when he was hit by gunfire.
The officers weren’t able to find any suspects after they set up a perimeter and searched the area with help from several other law enforcement agencies.
Officials said police on Friday night arrested a 64-year-old Oakdale man in connection with Thursday’s shooting. Oakdale Police Chief Nick Newton said he was booked and later released.
Neighbors along a three-block stretch in St Louis Park, Minnesota, say vandals smashed car windows early Sunday morning along Quentin Avenue.
A spokesperson for the City of St. Louis Park said officers took 18 reports of vehicle tampering and stolen property around 5 in the morning. The city wouldn’t confirm how many cars were hit, but said the investigation is ongoing.
“I was just pulling out and I had to swerve and avoid all the glass on the street because most cars on this block had their windows smashed,” said Nachshown Fertel.
While Fertel’s car wasn’t damaged, a car parked across the street was smashed across the windshield. Two others were missing windows.
“Obviously, it’s expensive to repair and we don’t know who did it,” Fertel said. “We all have Ring cameras, but since most of them were on the street, only a few people caught glimpses of it.”
Two blocks away, WCCO talked to a man with four damaged cars sitting outside his home. He said all the windows on his family cars were smashed early in the morning, but no one got away with anything valuable. He called the whole ordeal upsetting.
Aharon Harkavy spent part of Sunday cleaning up shattered glass in his driveway. He said neighbors have had issues with stolen cars and some break-ins in the past, but this string of damage felt like an escalation.
“This needs to stop, the police need to really do something about it,” he said.
Back in May, Minneapolis police were investigating a string of break-ins on the southwest side of the city. That followed 30 cars hit by vandals in April over an 8-hour span. Last summer in Minneapolis, there were roughly 475 vehicle break-ins in 30 days between July and August.
Fertel said many of his neighbors in St. Louis Park attend the same synagogue and the community came together to help with repairs.
“I went over to the rabbi and I said, ‘Can we start a fund?’” Fertel explained. “I got a few people to donate. We pulled together some funds to help people pay for the damage.”
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