Muslim parents keep kids home in “attendance strike” to protest LGBTQ+ books in school

Hundreds of Muslim parents at a Ham Lake, Minnesota charter school are threatening to pull their children out of school if the administration does not remove LGBTQ+ children’s books from the age-appropriate K-5 anti-bias curriculum.

Almost 200 Da Vinci Academy students (out of around 1000 total) were already kept home in a four-day attendance strike that executive director Holly Fischer told the Sahan Journal was “assumed due to this issue.”

Related: LGBTQ+ youth center vandalized with paint & slurs three nights in a row

The leader of the org. said the acts were clearly meant to make LGBTQ+ youth feel unwelcome.

At a September board meeting, Fischer told parents the anti-bias curriculum came about as a result of the fact that students were struggling with kindness and empathy after returning to school from the pandemic.

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Fischer also reminded parents of the Minnesota law that allows parents and legal guardians to opt their child out of school material they object to and work with the school to create “alternative instruction.”

Fischer reportedly emailed parents on October 1 to say that “the curriculum in question” is not on the agenda for several weeks and in the meantime, the administration will be ordering “more replacement curriculum to support students who have opted out.”

The anti-bias curriculum was created by the local nonprofit AmazeWorks. Of the 120 books involved, 24 contain LGBTQ+ characters.

AmazeWorks executive director Rebecca Slaby said the books help the kids “have more empathy for each other because they’re engaging in multiple perspectives, and they’re learning about each other as well.”

“Kids need to see themselves reflected positively in the curriculum,” Slaby said. “And they also need a window into the lives of people who are different from them.”

But several Muslim parents at the school disagree, arguing that teaching LGBTQ+ issues at school violates their parental rights.

At the September board meeting, Aboubakr Mekrami reportedly declared, “We teach our children to basically respect others. However, when the topic of LGBT comes up, we strongly believe that we need to be the ones who approach it and teach it to our children based on our beliefs. This is a fundamental belief for us, and one in which we have no wiggle room. We strongly object to this optional LGBT curriculum being used in the classroom.”

He then claimed it “is not about book banning or excluding anybody.”

“We are not against diversity, equity, and inclusion, but the way this should be presented should ensure that different beliefs are respected. We need to be authentic to our beliefs. And if we don’t feel like we are getting our needs met, families may leave.” 

Another parent, Amna Soussi, claimed the books would cause children stress and anxiety “because it goes against our fundamental beliefs.”

“Why put your school at a risk of losing over 135 students because of this?” she said. “This will affect the school’s enrollment. It’s going to throw a curveball in your funding.”

Hannah Dalske, who teaches gifted and talented classes at the school, spoke in support of the inclusive materials, citing the death of a boy she went to high school with due to the “sheer volume of bullying he endured for being an openly queer male in [a school that] had a no-tolerance policy.”

Dalske added that the AmazeWorks curriculum at Da Vinci is “the school deciding to be part of a solution – a solution we desperately need.”

Fischer is arranging a meeting with Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is representing the parents.