Iowa Teachers Who Were Suspended for “Wholesome” Drag Show Win $150K Settlement

One Iowa school district has learned the hard way that targeting teachers for helping students can be a real drag. Three teachers who were sanctioned for helping to facilitate a student-led drag show have received a settlement of $150,000 from Iowa’s Ankeny school district, per a July 20 report from the Des Moines Register. The lawsuit began when two teachers — Jill Bjorklund and Mollie Jo Blahunka — helped Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School students who were part of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance host a drag show in May 2022. Per the lawsuit, Ankeny students requested to host the event as a way to mingle with students from Southview, according to prior reporting in the Register. Students wanted the event to be a drag show as well as an ice cream social; additionally, it was only for GSA students and was not advertised to the public. Blahunka was Ankeny’s faculty sponsor, while Bjorklund was filling in for the faculty sponsor on maternity leave. Despite those in attendance confirming that the event was “wholesome” with no inappropriate content, the show rapidly became the target of right-wing vitriol, with footage of the event making its way to right-wing outrage factory Libs of TikTok and getting a write-up in right-wing outlet The Blaze.The drag show even became the subject of a bizarre lawsuit from “Iowa Bear Mom” Kimberly Reicks, a well-known right-wing activist who has advised Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on policy in the past. Reicks filed an $87 million lawsuit against the school district, despite neither her nor her children having attended the event, per the local news outlet Iowa Starting Line. (A judge dismissed that suit in 2023.)The Ankeny school district later claimed the drag performance was “unauthorized,” per the Register. Following the negative attention, the district investigated Bjorklund and Blahunka, as well as PJ Hurley, another teacher who was invited to attend. All three were subsequently put on leave following t