Ankeny School District in Iowa has agreed to pay a $150,000 settlement to three educators who faced disciplinary sanctions after assisting with a student-led drag show in May 2022. The agreement resolves allegations of discrimination based on sexual orientation and association after the school district penalized the teachers following a wave of right-wing public backlash.
The legal action originated when high school teacher Jill Bjorklund and middle school teacher Mollie Jo Blahunka helped members of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School organize an internal drag show paired with an ice cream social. Blahunka was acting as Ankeny’s faculty sponsor, while Bjorklund filled in for a colleague on maternity leave. PJ Hurley, a fellow educator, attended the event as an invited guest. Although participants and attendees confirmed the event was a wholesome social gathering limited strictly to GSA members and not advertised to the public, clips from the event quickly spread online, drawing heavy outrage from conservative commentators and media outlets.
In the wake of the public scrutiny, district administration declared the performance “unauthorized” and launched an investigation into the three educators. Following the inquiry, Bjorklund was handed a five-day suspension, Blahunka received a three-day suspension, and all three teachers were barred from serving as student activity sponsors in the future alongside warnings that further infractions would result in termination. District leadership also sought to bring ethics charges against the three teachers before the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, though the board ultimately dismissed those claims.
In response, the educators filed a lawsuit pointing out the harmful atmosphere created by the administration’s punitive measures. The lawsuit detailed how participating students faced harassment following the district’s response, asserting: “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.”
Under the terms of the newly finalized settlement, each of the three educators—Blahunka, who identifies as queer; Hurley, who is a gay man; and Bjorklund, who is the mother of a transgender child—will receive approximately $27,700, with $67,000 set aside to cover legal fees. Although legal counsel for the teachers chose not to issue a formal statement, a representative for the school district confirmed the outcome, noting that “the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”
The resolution arrives during a period of heightened legal and legislative friction over LGBTQ+ topics in Iowa public education following Governor Kim Reynolds’s signing of restrictions on instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation. Describing the impact of such state policies, Lambda Legal senior attorney Nathan Maxwell characterized the broader legislative environment as “a cruel and unconstitutional law that silences LGBTQ+ children, erases their existence from classrooms, and forces educators to expose vulnerable students to potential harm at home.”
