2022

March 30

Minutes before dismissal, an announcement over the PA at Turpin High School states that the Diversity Day event planned for the following morning will be postponed. The stated reason was procedural, to give parents more time to review the agenda. Parent volunteers had already delivered snacks for the event.

March 31

The planned day for Diversity Day, to coincide with an irregular day on the schedule when 9th and 10th graders were in testing.

Week of April 18 (approx)

The Turpin HS principal and teacher sponsor for Diversity Day meet with an upset member of the FHSD community about the content of the event and left with an understanding that their needs were addressed. Turpin principal David Spencer and Superintendent Scot Prebles approved the modified agenda and curriculum (1 video and a few questions were removed from an activity). No board member expressed opposition after being informed.

April 20

Superintendent Scot Prebles proposed dates for a rescheduled Diversity Day at the regular board meeting. Modifications removing one video and a few questions from the “Step Up to the Line” activity.

April 25

Diversity Day was rescheduled for May 18, with the new agenda and permission slip provided to parents. Due to increased interest, the cap was increased to 200 students.

April 29

Late Friday afternoon, FHSD central office sent a notice of a special board meeting for Sunday, May 1, the afternoon after Turpin High School’s prom. Agenda items included the already rescheduled Diversity Day. Live streaming of the meeting was not provided.

May 1

Citing capacity concerns, FHSD board members discuss Diversity Day and how to include Anderson High School in the event (AHS also in the district but did not have a Diversity Day.) However, the board eventually passed a motion to prevent the use of “tax-payer”-funded resources to state Diversity Day, including disallowing time during the school for students to discuss the event with staff and forbidding the use of school property during the day. It also forbade using school time for the event.

May 2

Over 100 students and parents protest before an executive session of the FHSD Board. Students chanted “Look at us!”

May 6

FHSD central office sends an official cancellation notice for the 2022 Diversity Day. Students work to organize an off-site event with donated funds from the community via GoFundMe.

May 18

More than 350 students from Turpin High School stage a walkout off of campus to a nearby private property to demand the district reinstate Diversity Day. More than 150 students at Anderson High School walk out in solidarity with their friends and teammates.

May 19

Student leader Claire Mengel testifies before the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The topic was censorship in the classroom.

June 21

The FHSD community learns a last-minute resolution to ban “anti-racism” was added to the board’s meeting agenda for the following day.

June 22

During public commentary, more than 25 community members, including students, speak out to oppose the resolution and in support of Diversity Day. Only 1 speaker supported the resolution. During board discussion, the FHSD board votes 3-2 to pass the anti-racism “Culture of Kindness” resolution. They also rejected reinstating Diversity Day in a separate resolution 2-3.

June 24

Attorneys Kelly and Nicole Lundrigan of Lundrigan Law Group (parents of five children in the FHSD) sent notice to …. June 29, 2022 Four families in FHSD, including a parent who is also a FHSD educator, filed suit to enjoin the enforcement of the Resolution, alleging in a federal lawsuit that the Resolution amounted to content-based censorship in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

July 1

MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction by Plaintiffs

July 21

Parties agree to a stipulation in which defendants agreed not to take any action to enforce, implement or attempt to enforce or implement the Forest Hills Local School District Board of Education (Board) “Resolution to Create a Culture of Kindness and Equal Opportunity for All Students and Staff” (Resolution) which was passed by the Board on June 22, 2022, nor will the Defendants create or commence the process to create any Policy of the Board which is intended to enforce or implement such Resolution during the pendency of this case in this Court.

2023

Oct. 26

Honorable Judge Michael Barrett stated in his decision that the Resolution utilized mandatory language and the school board defendants’ argument “defie[d] logic and the basic conventions of the English language.”