A member of the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board says another board member made “disparaging remarks” that were misleading and violated the principles of their ethics code.
Lisa Atkinson is the treasurer of the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board and has served as a member of the body since 2023. In recent weeks, Atkinson has become the primary spokesperson for school board members who want Minnesota to “comply with Title IX.”
Last month, the federal government said Minnesota was in violation of Title IX by allowing males to compete in female sports. Title IX, a federal anti-discrimination law, requires federally-funded schools to give women equal access to athletic opportunities.
Specifically, the federal government said the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) allowed males to participate in lacrosse, ski, volleyball, softball, and track and field teams that were designated for females.
According to the federal government’s findings, MDE, MSHSL, and various school districts knowingly allowed males into female sports which harmed female students. The federal government also said males were allowed to use female intimate spaces.
In turn, the federal government proposed a resolution which requires MDE and MSHSL to rescind guidance which allows males to compete in female sports and issue a notice to all federally-funded schools that says males are not to participate in female sports.
On Sept. 30, MSHSL and MDE were instructed to resolve the Title IX violations within 10 days. That deadline has since passed but no enforcement actions appear to have come from the federal government, which is currently in a weeks-long shutdown.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who supports letting transgender students play in sporting events of their choice, declined to provide a “substantive response” to the federal government’s charges because of the shutdown, according to Fox News.
To date, nearly 300 school board members across 117 Minnesota school districts have called on MDE and MSHSL to agree to the government’s proposed resolution. The group warned that failure to do so could jeopardize federal funding received by schools.
Last week, Atkinson spoke about the growing petition at a Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board meeting. The school board member said she was “designated as a spokesperson for this project” and wanted the community to know why she got involved in this issue.
Atkinson warned the district could lose up to $3.8 million in federal funding and be subject to litigation if Title IX compliance is not achieved. However, she said the “true heart of this issue for me is the safety and well-being of every child in our district, and I don’t believe our current Minnesota policies deliver on the intent of protecting all students.”
She continued, saying “this is one issue that I could not be silent on” and “we cannot turn back the page on what our moms worked so hard to advocate for.”
After that meeting, one of Atkinson’s fellow board members took to social media to express her displeasure with Atkinson’s comments.
“As a school board director I do not support Director Atkinson making a personal partison [sic], uninformed, and hateful message discriminating against a minority population,” wrote Director Mary Frantz in a comment about the school board meeting.
On Monday, Atkinson told Alpha News she “was truly disheartened by Director Frantz’s public comments, which felt like a direct dismissal of the time, care, and integrity I’ve poured into this Title IX project. I’ve worked hard to be transparent with our board and community, and to see my efforts publicly misrepresented—especially by a fellow board member—is not only painful, it’s deeply discouraging.”
Additionally, Atkinson said the comments were “misleading” and violated the principles of the board’s ethics policy.
The Prior Lake-Savage School Board’s ethics policy says members will “respect the rights of others to have and express opinions” and “make no disparaging remarks, in or out of school board meetings, about other members of the school board or their opinions.”
Alpha News reached out to Frantz for this story but she did not respond to questions or provide a comment. Media inquiries to MDE, MSHSL, and Attorney General Ellison were not immediately returned.
“I remain committed to this work—not because it’s easy, but because it matters,” Atkinson said in a statement to Alpha News. “And I will continue to advocate for our leaders in MN to follow Federal Title IX laws and lead with transparency, and respectful dialogue, even when it’s difficult.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
