Teachers disciplined over high school drag show win $150k settlement

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Teachers disciplined over high school drag show win $150k settlement

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/07/teachers-disciplined-over-high-school-drag-show-win-150k-settlement/ 🔗

John Russell (21 July 2026)

An Iowa school district will pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by three high school teachers who were disciplined for their involvement in a student drag show in 2022.

Jill Bjorklund, Mollie Jo Blahunka, and PJ Hurley will each receive $27,700 with an additional 67,000 going to their attorneys, according to the Des Moines Register. The settlement, reached earlier this month, comes after years of litigation.

The trio sued Ankeny Community School District in early 2023, alleging the district's disciplinary actions following right-wing outcry over the May 2022 drag show constituted unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation or association with others related to sexual orientation.

In 2022, Blahunka, who is queer, and Bjorklund, the mother of a trans child, were the faculty sponsors of Ankeny High School and Southview Middle School's Gay Straight Alliance student groups. The two oversaw an optional, after-school year-end party for the groups in May 2022, which included a drag show featuring one graduating Ankeny High senior and two 20-year-old performers with the Iowa Youth Pride Pageant, according to the Register. Hurley, who is gay, attended at the invitation of student organizers.

According to Blahunka, Bjorklund, and Hurley's lawsuit, Blahunka cleared the performers' songs as appropriate, and the families of the students who attended did not voice concerns about the event.

"At no point during the celebration did anyone expose themselves to a student or do anything obscene, inappropriate or engage in behavior that interrupted the educational environment at the school," the lawsuit stated.

However, when photos and video of the performances were posted online, anti-LGBTQ+ activists seized on the event, with Libs of TikTok's Chaya Raichik amplifying claims that the performances were inappropriate.

[Devlyn ✅]

Bad decision making by the school
board. Imagine how many ten
commandments signs they could
have put up with that $150,000 😂

Or, and stay with me here....
actually spend it on education.