Three Iowa teachers disciplined by Ankeny Community School District for facilitating a student-led drag show reached a settlement with the district just before their discrimination lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial on July 20, agreeing to a payout of approximately $27,700 per teacher plus $67,000 in attorneys’ fees, totaling around $150,000, per Fox News’s confirmed reporting. An Ankeny spokesperson told Fox News Digital the matter had been “resolved to the satisfaction of all parties,” which is the statement that a school district issues when it has paid $150,000 to end something rather than see what a jury would have said.
The drag show took place at Ankeny High School in Iowa, where three teachers were involved in facilitating a student-organized performance. The teachers were disciplined. They sued for discrimination. The district fought the lawsuit through both state and federal court for years before settling in the week before it was scheduled to go before a jury. “Resolved to the satisfaction of all parties” is the outcome of a process that cost the district approximately $150,000 more than it would have cost if the drag show had not occurred, or approximately $150,000 more than it would have cost if the district had not disciplined the teachers, depending on which direction you read the causality.
The legal backdrop is Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signing Senate File 496 in May 2023, the bill critics labeled the “Don’t Say LGBTQ” law, which prohibits classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation through sixth grade and requires school staff to notify parents if students request to use different pronouns or names. The law is the context in which the drag show, the discipline, the lawsuit, and the settlement all occurred. The settlement does not establish whether what the teachers did violated the law, because settlements specifically avoid establishing that.
Three teachers were disciplined. Three teachers sued. The district settled for $150,000 before a jury could decide who was right. The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties, per the spokesperson, which is a sentence that $150,000 is doing a lot of work to make true.
The trial was scheduled for July 20. The settlement came before it. The law is still in effect.
When a school district pays $150,000 to settle a drag show lawsuit rather than let a jury decide, what exactly was the district protecting?
Sources
Fox News: Iowa teachers suspended over viral student-run drag show reach settlement before trial
