Kansas Association of School Boards lawyer advises Lansing Unified School District 469 to not comply with President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting DEI

On March 11, 2025, The Lion reported that Lansing Unified School District 469 voted against a resolution 4-3 to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders prohibiting DEI in schools that receive federal funding. School Board member Amy Cawvey introduced the resolution to the overall board. The Lion reported that the School Board voted down the resolution after a lawyer from the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) stated that a resolution to comply was “probably unnecessary.”

The KASB lawyer reportedly stated that executive orders “should not change the underlying law” and “would create a separation of powers issue in most cases unless the President’s office has superior legal authority in a specific area.” The lawyer stated: “It should be very rare that an executive order would directly order a school district to do something, and, if it did, it would likely be swiftly challenged in the court system for being overreaching.” This lawyer explained: “If you’re not ordered to do something, you are not required to adhere to anything in particular.”

The following was the resolution proposed to the district’s Board of Education.