Forest Lake board adopts new student-activities policy, keeps explicit ban on Confederate and KKK symbols

Forest Lake — The Forest Lake Area School Board voted Thursday to adopt a new student-activities policy it calls Policy 1510, preserving district sponsorship and funding for a long list of school clubs and activities, and to rescind the older umbrella policy numbered 507.

The board’s action follows more than two hours of public comment, much of it from students, parents and educators urging the district to preserve student clubs and to explicitly ban symbols associated with hate in the school discipline policy. The board held a first reading of a separate equal-access policy for limited open-forum groups (Policy 18.01) and scheduled final action on that policy for its June 26 meeting.

Why it matters: The policies define which student groups the district formally sponsors (with paid advisers, use of school facilities and promotion) and which operate under limited open-forum rules protected by federal law. The decisions affect middle- and high-school clubs, whether they can have school-paid advisers or district promotion, and how the district handles controversial insignia.

Board action and context - Policy 1510 (Student activities — school-sponsored groups): The…