School board member posts Nazi meme & then blames “the Holy Spirit” for making her do it

A school trustee in Canada says that “the Holy Spirit” told her to post a meme comparing the LGBTQ+ community to Nazis.

As CTV News Edmonton reports, on August 27, Monique LaGrange, a member of the board of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools in Alberta, Canada, posted a meme on social media showing a black-and-white photo of school children waving Nazi flags above a color photo of children in a classroom waiving Progress Pride flags. Above the images were the words “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”

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“Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

The post led to calls from the LGBTQ+ community and the Alberta Teachers’ Association for LaGrange to resign or be removed from the board. In late September, the board found that LaGrange had violated the RDCRS Trustee Code of Conduct and Alberta’s Education Act. While she remains on the board, she has been banned from being on committees and attending board meetings. She has been ordered to write a sincere apology letter and complete sensitivity training about the Holocaust and LGBTQ+ discrimination, and cannot represent the board in an official capacity until she does so.

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Earlier this month, however, LaGrange’s lawyer, James Kitchen, said she refuses to apologize, arguing that “she didn’t do anything wrong.”

On Tuesday, the RDCRS board released its 15-page decision regarding LaGrange, which included her argument that the meme she posted was “not about the LGBTQ community.” According to the decision, LaGrange argued that the meme “is about indoctrination through the United Nations which directly correlates to World War II and Nazism; it is about the agenda of the United Nations and Planned Parenthood which is an attempt to sabotage our youths’ identities and destinies and hijacks the LGBTQ community’s original mandate.”

The board disagreed, stating that LaGrange’s post “is not, on a reasonably objective standard, dignified nor professional, [and the board] does not accept the trustee’s submission that the meme was clearly unrelated to Nazism.”

“Regardless of the trustee’s intent, in the board’s view, a reasonable person viewing two photographs (one over the other) could reasonably conclude that a negative comparison was being made,” the decision said.

“The Pride flag is used to silence people; children are being kicked out of school and people are being fired which is antithetical to the trustee’s religious beliefs; and that ‘cancel culture’ is not what is good, lawful, appropriate or democratic,” the board’s summary of LaGrange’s position continues.

“The trustee was clear that her beliefs informed her views: she stated the Holy Spirit had told her to post the meme and that this was something she should do,” according to the board’s decision.

“She’s just a normal Bible-believing Christian, who when she’s considering something prays about it, which is what Paul says you should do in the New Testament, and then she received the affirmation she was seeking, so she did it,” Kitchen told CTV News of his client’s decision to post the meme.

Kitchen added that LaGrange is steadfast in her refusal to apologize and would likely refuse to take part in the required sensitivity training as well, describing it as “re-education, Maoist-struggle-session-type thing where her mind is changed” and her “brain is washed.” Kitchen said that LaGrange would seek a judicial review of the board’s decision.