Teachers disciplined over high school drag show win $150k settlement

The teachers accused their Iowa school district of discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.

An Iowa school district will pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by three high school teachers who were disciplined for their involvement in a student drag show in 2022.

Jill Bjorklund, Mollie Jo Blahunka, and PJ Hurley will each receive $27,700 with an additional 67,000 going to their attorneys, according to the Des Moines Register. The settlement, reached earlier this month, comes after years of litigation.

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The trio sued Ankeny Community School District in early 2023, alleging the district’s disciplinary actions following right-wing outcry over the May 2022 drag show constituted unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation or association with others related to sexual orientation.

In 2022, Blahunka, who is queer, and Bjorklund, the mother of a trans child, were the faculty sponsors of Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School’s Gay Straight Alliance student groups. (The following year, Iowa passed its own version of a “Don’t Say Gay” law, leading many schools in the state to disband their GSA groups.) The two oversaw an optional, after-school year-end party for the groups in May 2022, which included a drag show featuring one graduating Ankeny High senior and two 20-year-old performers with the Iowa Youth Pride Pageant, according to the Register. Hurley, who is gay, attended at the invitation of student organizers.

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According to Blahunka, Bjorklund, and Hurley’s lawsuit, Blahunka cleared the performers’ songs as appropriate, and the families of the students who attended did not voice concerns about the event.

“At no point during the celebration did anyone expose themselves to a student or do anything obscene, inappropriate or engage in behavior that interrupted the educational environment at the school,” the lawsuit stated.

However, when photos and video of the performances were posted online, anti-LGBTQ+ activists seized on the event, with Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik amplifying claims that the performances were inappropriate. One local conservative activist, Iowa Mama Bears founder Kimberley Reicks, turned up to an Ankeny School Board meeting in a leotard similar to the one worn by a performer to protest the event.

Meanwhile, parents and young people who actually attended the event told the school board that nothing sexually explicit or obscene happened in the performances, the Register reported at the time.

In their lawsuit, Blahunka, Bjorklund, and Hurley alleged the anti-LGBTQ+ backlash led to harassment and bullying of students involved in the schools’ GSA groups. They further claimed that the “district’s actions and statements in the days following sent a clear message to every LGBTQ+ student and staff member that they were unwelcome and unsafe in their own schools.”

In response to the right-wing criticism, Ankeny Community School District issued a statement calling the drag show “unauthorized,” and launched investigations into the three teachers, all three of whom were placed on leave through the end of the 2022 school year.

Bjorklund and Blahunka each received short suspensions at the beginning of the following school year, while all three teachers were reportedly banned from sponsoring student activities. Ethics charges filed with the Iowa Board of Education Examiners against all three teachers by the district were ultimately dismissed.

Blahunka, Bjorklund, and Hurley’s lawsuit was set to go to trial on Monday. But as the Register reports, their lawyers reached a settlement with the district on July 1. Their representatives have not commented on the settlement, but a spokesperson for Ankeny Community School District told the outlet, “The matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”

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