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Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Anoka Hennepin School District settles student anti-bullying litigation. Kathy Tingelstad, asserting outside agitators bullied a settlement voted against the deal, and after the vote resigned.

PiPress reporting, online here and here. ABC Newspapers coverage, here. That report comments upon a Tingelstad resignation letter, without posting it online. If any reader has additional links, or the Tingelstad letter, please email or leave a comment.

________UPDATE__________
The settlement attained national coverage, e.g., this Google.

Thompson-Reuters has the story here. I don't know what Tingelstad objected to, but the TR report states:

The settlement reached with the students and the U.S. Justice and Education Departments, was approved by the Anoka-Hennepin School District board on Monday and must be approved by a federal judge, officials said.

If Tingelstad feels that federal involvement was inappropriate, I believe her to be wrong.

It appears the settlement arose from mediation, and with the case in litigation judicial approval of the settlement is needed but has not yet been attained.

One hopes that the board will publish the text of the settlement and the Tingelstad resignation letter. That step would inform the public, and if the board is antithetical to informing the public, spreading knowledge, we have a problem.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
The board has one of those annoying websites, with an Adobe Flash thing that is not easy to navigate for those hating Flash and disabling it, and the board might consider putting a link at the foot of its homepage, a site map link, since, again a school board not making it easy for citizens to be informed and knowledgeable suggests students might have a hard time with such objectives too.Channeled access vs open "buffet" access raises a host of probably unneeded questions about site design goals, informational motivations, and choice of ways and means. Fix it please, AH District, it IS important, not mere carping over "image." How a school district presents itself to an online public IS worth citizen review and comment.

People paying the tax should not be told if you have problems with this page, use a particular proprietary piece of software. This is or should be an embarrassment - it most certainly is not good web design:


One, I configure my browser to suppress pop-ups, it is a security goal, a best practice for web users. Two, Flash has security holes, more than other software, and it keeps a mega tracking cookie that needs special attention, apart from the more normal site cookie protocols and storage. It is offensive that way and I don't want it on my workstation.

Then, that language in the footer in green, if we keep bad links, sorry; that does not cut it. One would think educators, and a district not short of paid administrators, could do a credible and accountable job of presenting online information.

___________FURTHER UPDATE__________
By web search, only that way, the opening impediment page of the AH District's site can be bypassed; e.g.,

http://www.anoka.k12.mn.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=11001

http://www.anoka.k12.mn.us/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=29357

But why in the world is that not the norm? Why the intentional home page mish-mosh.

Try to parse one of those URL addresses down to the main domain name:

http://www.anoka.k12.mn.us

Try it. See what you get - especially if you do not have/use/want Flash.

Since my two links above bypass the garbage, they are worth your bookmarking as favorites.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Other local links on the settlement, Strib, MinnPost. National attention; HufPo, Seattle Times, Boston.com, and SDGLN. Truly coast-to-coast news.

MinnPost has this chilling excerpt:

Tingelstad was followed by Sam Wolfe, the Southern Poverty Law Center attorney who led the plaintiffs’ legal effort. “The gag policy is now a relic of the past, as it should be,” he said, referring to the so-called curricular neutrality policy, which the board replaced last month.

Wolfe praised his young clients, several of whom were clustered nervously behind him, some holding hands. And then he stepped to one side, as if to cede the microphone to them and their parents.

'This press conference is over'

But Brett Johnson, assistant director of the district’s communications staff, moved between the plaintiffs and the press and declared the press conference over. Reporters demanded clarification – was Johnson going to shut off the audio-visual equipment? The power? Was the media being asked to leave?

“This press conference is over,” Johnson repeated several times.

After a moment of stunned silence, a cameraman burst out, “Are you really going to do this?”

Johnson’s boss intervened, but the students appeared overwhelmed. The first to agree to take questions quickly was overcome by tears. Several of the others put their arms around him and one stepped to the podium to bail him out.

'Teachers are trying, I can see it'

“Every student deserves a good education,” said Dylon Frei, a ninth-grader at Anoka High School. “I didn’t get one, but it’s getting better and will be better for these kids.

“Teachers are trying, I can see it,” he added. “I haven’t had an experience for the last month and a half, and that’s something.”

“I personally am pleased that the district recognized that the status quo wasn’t working,” said Michael McGee, the father of one of the plaintiffs. “Thank you to the six of you for telling us something needed to change.”

In November 2010, in the wake of several student suicides, the U.S. departments of Justice and Education separately informed the district it was investigating complaints that students’ civil rights had been violated.

[bolded subheadlines in original]. Who is this Brett Johnson character? The man should be fired. He should have been fired on the spot. He was not, so he should be fired now. There is no need to wait. We expect more from school officials than censorship. What does that teach? What a jackass. Fire him. Immediately. He was out of order beyond excuse.

Now, do you want another spine chilling quote, Strib reporting:

Laurie Thompson, spokeswoman for the Parents Action League, called the settlement a "travesty."

The lawsuit, she said in an e-mail, was not about bullying but was meant to "abolish conservative moral beliefs about homosexuality. Making schools safe for 'gay' kids means indoctrinating impressionable, young minds with homosexual propaganda."

The lawsuit was most certainly about bullying and this Thompson woman is someone not reflecting well on our community. She misstates the obvious, to twist it into "indoctrinating" --- so what, she wants open season on gay people, no bag limit? Give me a break. There was offensive confrontational conduct, it needed to be stopped, litigation was necessary to achieve that, and then this Thompson woman wants to drastically rock a boat finally set right. Not part of any solution, part of the problem, by her own comments.

Quite simply, "Making schools safe for gay kids" means nothing other than - making schools safe for gay kids. It is not rocket science to understand that? Where does this Thompson woman get the idea something so clear means some nefarious scheme, by them, the gay people? Is she channeling Michele Bachmann, what? She clearly does not reflect well on our community.

______________FURTHER UPDATE______________
I believe either this item is wholly new, or an update, for ABC Newspapers reporting. Interestingly, Kathy Tingelstad's Wikipedia page is updated already to reflect her having resigned from the the School Board. Somebody cares to have gotten that update up quickly. The Wikipedia page also notes Tingelstad's ongoing day job as Anoka County's main legislative lobbyist. The page, however, also fails to post or link to the resignation letter Tingelstad submitted. I have an email request in to her at the County, asking if she would as a courtesy provide a copy so as to short circuit any formal public data disclosure inquiry with the AH District for it. Hopefully, she will find time to help. I would post her full letter here, without commentary, because readers after reviewing it can decide for themselves on what they might agree or disagree with, and why.

__________FINAL UPDATE___________
If any new thing is spotted, I shall post it separately. Ditto if I do obtain a copy of the Tingelstad letter.

For now, the MinnPost reporting did link to a AH District web post on the settlement, and I simply read past it previously. Here:

http://www.anoka.k12.mn.us/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=233410&itemID=48038