Former Red Deer trustee ruled against a second time after taking school division to court over dismissal

Her goal all along has been to be reinstated to the board.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this second judicial review, which confirms the integrity of the board’s decision-making process,” says Board Chair Murray Hollman.

“As a board, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful, and positive learning environment for all students, staff, and community members.”

The sanctions against LaGrange all stemmed from a controversial meme shared at the end of August 2023; it featured juxtaposed images of children holding Nazi flags with swastikas and children holding Pride flags.

It included the caption, ‘Brainwashing is brainwashing.’

As the division notes, the post sparked significant concern regarding its implications and alignment with the board’s values and policies.

LaGrange’s initial posting of the meme sparked the first code of conduct complaint, which bore sanctions, which she then breached sparking a second complaint. That’s when the board of trustees opted to disqualify LaGrange, who the Government of Alberta confirmed in fall 2023 that she is a distant relative of Adriana LaGrange, Alberta’s current health minister, and former RDCRS trustee.

Her breach of the sanctions leading to her disqualification included doing multiple media interviews, which the original sanctions clearly barred her from doing.

In November, LaGrange’s legal counsel, James Kitchen, indicated that his client intended to take her case to the Court of Appeal of Alberta.

On Tuesday, Kitchen told rdnewsNOW that the decision was entirely expected.

“It doesn’t seem there were any caveats this time. It’s rubberstamping,” he said.

“We’ve filed our appeal with the first decision and we will appeal this one in January.”

Kitchen added that the decision is frustrating.

“It’s getting to be a really unfortunate place in the country where it’s now so easy to predict the outcome of a court case based on who the judge is and who appointed them,” Kitchen said.

“Some of that you can’t escape, because people are human beings, including judges; you cannot reasonably deny that they rule according to their ideology, and you can’t escape that, but you should not be able to predict.”

A date has not yet been set for LaGrange’s appeal.

Justice Arcand-Kootenay’s decision on the second judicial review can be found here.

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by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Former Red Deer trustee ruled against a second time after taking school division to court over dismissal

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