School Board Firestorm: Graves, Dogs, Felony?

Modern school building with large windows and a clear sky

A St. Paul school board clerk posted on Facebook that white Christian cemeteries should be turned into dog parks so dogs can urinate on the graves — and she’s already facing federal felony charges for a separate incident.

Story Snapshot

Chauntyll Allen, clerk of the St. Paul Public Schools board and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, posted the cemetery comment on June 21, 2026.
Allen defended the remark, saying she needed to be provocative to make a point about historical injustice tied to a local dog park dispute.
She already faces federal felony charges for leading a 2023 church invasion during an anti-immigration enforcement protest that left a congregant with a broken arm.
St. Paul Public Schools said it had “no further comment” on the controversy.

What Allen Said and Why

On June 21, 2026, Allen posted in the public Facebook group “We Love Our Dog Park: Minnehaha,” asking why white Christian cemeteries couldn’t simply be turned into dog parks. The clear implication was that dogs would urinate on the graves. Allen later defended the post, saying she believed that kind of language was needed to get her message across about a land dispute involving the Minnehaha off-leash dog park, which sits within a site recognized as a Traditional Cultural Place by the Dakota people.

Allen is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities and was recognized by St. Paul Public Schools as a “Black woman of impact” during Women’s History Month in March 2023. Her supporters argue her post was symbolic protest. But the comment drew swift and widespread backlash. Most people — regardless of politics — found the idea of desecrating graves deeply offensive. The school district offered no defense of her remarks, saying only that it had no further comment.

The Problems With Her Argument

Allen’s protest analogy falls apart on basic facts. No exclusively “white Christian” cemeteries exist in Minnesota. Local cemeteries like Oakland (founded 1853) and Calvary (founded 1856) serve diverse communities and have never been restricted by race or religion. Beyond that, graves are sealed inside caskets and concrete vaults — dogs cannot physically reach the remains below. The rhetorical point she claims to be making doesn’t hold up to even basic scrutiny.

The context around the Minnehaha dog park is real — the land does carry cultural significance for Indigenous communities. But Allen’s cemetery proposal has not been endorsed by any Dakota tribal leaders or Indigenous organizations. The people she claims to speak up for have not publicly backed her approach. Invoking sacred land concerns while targeting Christian graves with this kind of imagery is not a serious policy argument. It’s a provocation that undermines the very cause she says she supports.

A Pattern of Radical Behavior in a Position of Public Trust

Allen’s cemetery post is not an isolated incident. She faces federal felony charges tied to a January 18, 2023, protest in which she led a group that stormed Cities Church in St. Paul during a Sunday morning service. The disruption caused chaos and left one congregant with a broken arm. That case is still pending. Allen holds a position of public trust — the clerk of a school board that oversees the education of thousands of children.

This is exactly the kind of radicalism that parents and taxpayers should know about. A school board member calling for Christian graves to be used as dog toilets — while facing felony charges for invading a church — is not someone focused on student achievement or community well-being. School boards shape curriculum, set policy, and spend public money. When activists with extreme records and inflammatory rhetoric hold those seats, families pay the price. Voters in St. Paul should be paying close attention.