Community Members Shut Down Prior Lake-Savage School Board Meeting

Racial Reckoning: The Arc of Justice

Dozens of students, parents and graduates from the district showed up to speak out about their own racist encounters after a video went viral of a student encouraging a Black teen to kill herself. But school board members refused to hear more than a handful.

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Georgia Fort reports:

Concerned community members shut down Prior Lake-Savage School Board Meeting Monday evening after the board refused to hear more than a handful of complaints on racial attacks within the district.

Dozens of students, parents and graduates from the district were hoping to speak out about their own racist encounters after a video went viral of a girl using the N word and encouraging a Black teen to kill herself. School board members walked out, saying the meeting had become disorderly.

“The fact that you had the audacity to walk out just shows that this happens over and over,” yelled a former student in frustration.

At the beginning of the school board meeting, Superintendent Teri Staloch read a written statement informing the public that the student who used the N word in the video is no longer enrolled in the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools and that police are still continuing their investigation into the video.

“A few weeks ago we all became aware of a racist video shared by a student on social media,” said Staloch. “The horrific racist video continues to cause pain and hurt to all of our community, particularly our BIPOC students, staff and families. To be clear, our schools do not tolerate hate or racism.”

Kristi Mussman, Director of Communications, said none of the school board members were in a position to comment. Activists say they hope to meet with Governor Walz to get legislation drafted that would create stricter consequences for hate speech in schools.