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On 15 February 2017, the web site LibertyIsViral.com reported that the state of Minnesota had banned Valentine's Day celebrations in public schools specifically because the holiday offends Muslims: According to the misleading story, the principal at Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota, banned Valentine's Day because it offends Muslims, as detailed in a Minneapolis Star Tribune article from 2016: Statistics provided in the article showed that Asian-American and Pacific Islander comprise the majority of the student body at that school, at 52.3 percent (a large percentage of whom identify as Christian). The second- and third-largest demographics were black (also Christian) and Hispanic students (again, largely Christian) at 35.4 and 6.9 percent, respectively. Masini made no reference to Islam or any other religion in the entirety of the article, and the single sentence in the article about religious objections of any kind referenced comments made by a Facebook user in support of the policy change: Left out of the 2017 rehash of this topic was that the school district had an overall policy regarding classroom observance of holidays across the board, put in place nearly a decade before anyone claimed that offended Muslims were to blame: We found no information whatsoever to suggest that the primary claim, that offended Muslims ordered the cancellation of Valentine's Day at one school or an entire state, had any basis in truth. The claim appeared to be a rehash of routine allegations that offended Muslims have demanded or coerced (non-existent) bans on Christmas, the Pledge of Allegiance, poppies, the National Anthem, the American flag in America, the Statue of Liberty, Halloween (twice), bathing suits at water parks, bacon, England jerseys, pork, ham, the graves of grandparents, chapel benches, and the use of microwaves for non-halal food.
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