The USD 469 School District in Lansing first accepted, then quickly rejected, a donation of pocket-sized U.S. Constitutions for 8th graders as Constitution Day approached on September 17th, citing political bias among the organizers and distributors of the educational material.
The non-partisan 917 Society, named for the September 17th celebration of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and the Johnson County Chapter of Moms for Liberty. Among those distributing the books was Amy Cawvey, a former member of the Lansing School Board who often questioned board policies and actions.
Interviewed on RedState.com, Lansing Superintendent Marty Kobza defended his decision to reject the donation:
“Initially, I believed 917 (Society) to be a political organization. After researching, I discovered they did not fit that definition. However, Amy Cawvey made a post on her candidate page for state school board that the pocket Constitutions were provided in conjunction with Moms for Liberty. School districts cannot endorse or appear to support political organizations or candidates. Doing so creates an open forum for all political organizations or entities to distribute materials through the schools. The Constitution is an integral and important part of the curriculum that is taught in USD 469 and that will continue.”
Board member Kirsten Workman decried the decision to reject the donation at a recent meeting:
“I’m really disappointed that the district reversed its decision to allow them to be distributed, and I call it a ban because they were accepted. The 917 Society is a nonpartisan 501 C3. Just because other people say that it is not nonpartisan doesn’t make it true. I think the real issue was the individual who was donating them and the organization that helped her acquire them; that’s what folks were really upset about. Passing out Constitutions to eighth graders can be a very unifying community event that we should all get behind, and I was very sad that we couldn’t do that.
Fellow board member Peter Im took offense at Workman’s statement:
“I (reject) the assertion that the board, or this district, or the superintendent, or anyone else is against the Constitution. Or that there’s any type of material or verbiage out there in our community that says that we’re any less patriotic, or less interested, or less inclined to be able to educate our children on one of the fundamentals that we have here. And by the way, it’s what we do.”
Im’s attempt to deflect did not go unnoticed. No one said or implied that the rejection was related to patriotism or support of constitutional principles. Kansas Policy Institute CEO Dave Trabert says it’s clear the offer was rejected for a different political reason.
“Superintendent Kobza and the majority of the USD 469 board routinely oppose anything that Amy Cawvey or student-focused groups like Moms for Liberty support. For example, Kobza’s supported the board’s 4-3 rejection of Cawvey’s 2025 resolution to affirm compliance with a presidential executive order relating to the elimination of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and those that promote or incorporate gender ideology as defined by the executive order in education.”
Lansing district engages with politically active organizations
The Sentinel asked Workman if there are other politically active organizations that donate items to the district and how those donations are regarded:
“Champions for Lansing Education is a local, politically-oriented organization that collected school supplies for the district during their campaign “Meet and Greet” in the fall of last year. This organization endorses and strongly campaigns for ‘pro-public school candidates’ and, to my knowledge, their donation was not refused.
“During the last election season, then-candidate Jeff Bollin requested contributions to the district’s accessible playground fund managed by the local education foundation, also a 501c3. The district regularly accepts donations from that 501c3 and to my knowledge, it did not object to this type of political solicitation.
“The League of Women Voters (LWV), which is technically a 501(c)(4) but has a 501(c)(3) arm which they use for their education efforts such as hosting a New Voter Registration table at the local ‘Operation Grad’ event. OpGrad is an all-night, lock-in-style party hosted at the district for seniors the night of graduation. In addition to publishing official positions on many political issues, the LWV also partners with many other political and social activist groups, as well as ‘Snapchat’ and ‘Reddit.’ I was volunteering at OpGrad in May of this year—Jackie Kennedy worked the LWV table.”
It was board member Kennedy who posted on her X account her objection to the 917 Society donation of the pocket Constitutions in response to a question about board approval of the material. Kennedy wrote, “This is no board approval for distributing these outside materials to our students. I would know. I am also a board member in Lansing.”
The following day, Lansing Superintendent Kobza rejected the donation.
