Lesbian teens shake up Champlin Park pep fest

Published 1:47 pm Friday, January 28, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS — A civil rights group is threatening to take Minnesota’s largest school district to court if it doesn’t permit two lesbian teens to walk into pep fest as a couple on Monday afternoon.

The Southern Poverty Law Center gave the Anoka-Hennepin School District until noon to comply. A law center lawyer says the deadline passed without word from the district.

At issue are two 18-year-old women who were elected by the students of Champlin Park High School as royalty for the annual Snow Days Pep Fest.

Anoka-Hennepin schools spokeswoman Mary Olson says traditionally the royal court walks into the assembly as male-female couples, but the lesbian couple said they weren’t comfortable with that.

Olson says it was decided Friday that the royal court will walk in individually or accompanied by an adult.