Anoka-Hennepin student's lawyer demands teachers' firings; teachers deny harassment

this is just ridiclious. how can these teachers deny any of what happened when my brother who isnt even here to defend himself came home everyday torn apart more and more. these teachers deserve everything bad that has to come to them.

Funny how he demands the teachers be fired the same day reports come out that the kid was overheard talking about bringing a gun to school.

I say the kid and his mother have issues and that the teahers are not in the wrong here. How many times before have kids cried wolf only to be found out later that they lied and ruined a reputation.

I think the school district was to quick to reprimand.

If the "lawyer" Jeff Anderson is the family attorney, then I have no doubt the teachers are INNOCENT. Is there a TV camera that guy wont mug for....?
Yuk Yuk Yuk

Jeff Anderson is a wacko lawyer that chases parked ambulances,
This so called bar member is a disgrace to the legal system. Any Wacko that has a fool for a client is a fool himself,
God how I would like to be a jury member and hear this whole caseless case.

ashlee wrote:

this is just ridiclious. how can these teachers deny any of what happened when my brother who isnt even here to defend himself came home everyday torn apart more and more. these teachers deserve everything bad that has to come to them.

Torn about because of abuse by teachers or torn apart because he was being punished by teachers. There is a huge difference. Love is blind sister....

ashlee wrote:

this is just ridiclious. how can these teachers deny any of what happened when my brother who isnt even here to defend himself came home everyday torn apart more and more. these teachers deserve everything bad that has to come to them.

Uhhhh....right. Sure. Then the military is REALLY the place for him.

Hope the teachers win their case, and this little cream puff has to pay all the $25K back. Didn't this kids family settle on $25K? Then why is this still an issue? Pay it back Alex!!! Pay it back!!!

So we're really supposed to believe Merritt talked about bringing a gun to school one day, and then when he realized he might get in trouble, he (a straight kid) made up lies the next day that teachers had been harassing him for being gay? Ridiculous. Anyone who believes that might want to examine their own critical thinking skills and ask themselves how they could believe such a bizarre explanation...is it because it excuses anti-gay harassment which you don't see any problem with anyway? So many commenters are like "finally the truth comes out" as if you were on the teachers side from the beginning, didn't want to believe it, or didn't see any problem with it in the first place.
The facts are still on Merritt's side. This has been investigated twice. The harassment happened. That's over and done with. A "vague rumor" about a gun was investigated and NOTHING CAME OF IT. These teachers are obviously taking some desperate measures to try and salvage their reputations and their jobs, even if they have to lie. Listen to Cleveland's lawyer... He even SOUNDS like he's lying. When trying to attribute Alex's complaint to retaliation for the "gun incident" he says...
"OUR POSITION is that that's when this stuff started." He later says "we're not backing down from OUR VERSION OF EVENTS." Way to go...He can't even say "this is what happened" in a convincing way. He's saying this is our story and we're sticking to it (regardless of whether or not any of it is true).

Media Coverage Fails wrote:

As always the media never gets all the facts - they try both sides in the paper and no one really gets the real story.

Nope...every step of the way, the media has asked the teachers and the school district for a comment and there has been nothing. This happened over a two years ago and became public a month ago. But now, suddenly the teachers have an explanation. The school's own investigation did not find that this alleged gun incident even occurred, but they did find that the harassment ocurred after interviewing several student witnesses. Facts are still facts. Teachers who would harass a student and lie about it are still dispicable.

Archie wrote:

Jeff Anderson is a wacko lawyer that chases parked ambulances,
This so called bar member is a disgrace to the legal system. Any Wacko that has a fool for a client is a fool himself,
God how I would like to be a jury member and hear this whole caseless case.

Hey Archie - I'll bet you $25,000 Jeff Anderson was the one who advised Merritt to get his butt into the army for a little self reflection, artillery training and discipline!

From what I've heard, enlistment can postpone civil procedures - correct me if I'm wrong!

let me guess- the second this merrit kid gets a DI in the face telling him to move his a$$, he's gonna pull the same victim game... sounds like the family wants more money to me- glad my wife got out of public school teaching when she did. The school refused to let her have a video camera in class to record the stuff coming from these kids for her own defense against stuff like this...

runfast 101 wrote:

<quoted text>
Nope...every step of the way, the media has asked the teachers and the school district for a comment and there has been nothing. This happened over a two years ago and became public a month ago. But now, suddenly the teachers have an explanation. The school's own investigation did not find that this alleged gun incident even occurred, but they did find that the harassment ocurred after interviewing several student witnesses. Facts are still facts. Teachers who would harass a student and lie about it are still dispicable.

It just seems like a strange way to conduct an investigation, not interviewing the teachers or the students in the class room. How did they determine what happened without asking anyone? Why would six students lie and say nothing happened? What do these six have to gain? How many more students might come forward now and say nothing happened? If its say 50, then who do you believe?

A few things do not make sense. First, why would a School Resource Officer report a potential firearm incident to a teacher? This does not add up. A cop knows who to report serious incidents to and it isn't a teacher.

With all due respect to Ms. Olson, the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Chapter 13 of Minnesota Statutes, makes the data in this situation public if the final disposition has occurred:

Minnesota Statute §13.43 PERSONNEL DATA.
Subd. 2.Public data.

(a) Except for employees described in subdivision 5 and subject to the limitations described in subdivision 5a, the following personnel data on current and former employees, volunteers, and independent contractors of a government entity is public:

(1) name; employee identification number, which must not be the employee's Social Security number; actual gross salary; salary range; contract fees; actual gross pension; the value and nature of employer paid fringe benefits; and the basis for and the amount of any added remuneration, including expense reimbursement, in addition to salary;

(2) job title and bargaining unit; job description; education and training background; and previous work experience;

(3) date of first and last employment;

(4) the existence and status of any complaints or charges against the employee, regardless of whether the complaint or charge resulted in a disciplinary action;

(5) the final disposition of any disciplinary action together with the specific reasons for the action and data documenting the basis of the action, excluding data that would identify confidential sources who are employees of the public body;

(6) the terms of any agreement settling any dispute arising out of an employment relationship, including a buyout agreement as defined in section 123B.143, subdivision 2, paragraph (a); except that the agreement must include specific reasons for the agreement if it involves the payment of more than $10,000 of public money;

The bottom line is that there are lots of things about this whole situation, including the allegations, the "investigations" conducted by Anoka-Hennepin and the State Human Rights Department, or lack there or, that to do feel right. The State obviously could not have conducted a proper "investigation" without interviewing the accused teachers or potential witnesses. Sloppy.

this is all a case of political correctness run amok. This kid is a poser and these teachers were railroaded by the Mn human rights dept., your tax dollars at work. They didn't even interview the accused. No chance to tell their side of the story.

OK let's see if I understand this...the Dept. of Human Rights went by information provided by the school district's investigation.
So, even though the school district's OWN investigation determined that the instances of abuse towards the student were TRUE, now all of a sudden the teachers have come up with this off the wall accusation.
Gimme a break, wouldn't the school district have found this information out right away when they started their investigation? Wouldn't that have been the first thing their investigation uncovered?
These teachers should be sued personally instead of the school. This is just a continuation of abuse!

Again, Shakespeare is proven right.

If you read the article it states that the teacher attempted to tell the district that the gun incident was related and was told it was irrelevant, without checking into it? The lawyer for the school district, the students who wrote the letter, the two teachers, the police officer and the communications director all confirm there was a report (substantiated or not) that these boys made these comments. Th school district would have found this out right away but as the articles states, they said it was irrelevant... Sounds to me like they threw these teachers under the bus, paid the kid off to keep him quiet and did a shoddy investigation, which the DHR picked up and ran with. HOW does a state agency get away with publicly accusing these teachers without TALKING TO THEM??? Also,the article states that all the students were spoken to and all corroborated this kid. Strangely enough, I heard they talked to a total of 5 students.. HMMMM

Now this accusation came out after a month? If there is so much truth to it why didn't the teachers come out right away and tell this to the media, papers, etc. Or make a public statement denouncing the alleged harassment. They finally make mention of this "incident" with a gun, which was never substantiated by the way, this long after the news story broke. I agree with Hannah, wouldn't the district's investigation have asked people involved if any party had revenge on them for anything at all. Why would this kid make up a big story about being called gay and harassed knowing this would follow him to boot camp. Don't think this is the kind of thing he wanted to happen, but I feel he is creating a good awareness for change in that school district, and new policies need to put in place to protect all students and staff from harassment such as was involved in the initial case. Poor people in that district to be paying for these kind of role models for their children. Shame on you District 11.

Tell me how this lawyer was able to sneak into the minds of Cleveland and Filson and was able to determine that "they perceived him to be gay" or "thought he was gay?" Does this man claim to now know what these two teachers were thinking. How does one tell if another is gay? This lawyer "presumes" to know what is in the minds of others? He should have his own TV show!

ashlee wrote:

this is just ridiclious. how can these teachers deny any of what happened when my brother who isnt even here to defend himself came home everyday torn apart more and more. these teachers deserve everything bad that has to come to them.

Ashlee, are you really his sister? Was he really torn up? On a daily basis, or once in awhile? Is this a case of the teacher's union getting behind these teachers and lying to protect their own? I've been back and forth on this one and I appreciate being able to talk to someone who knew this young man.

Ok people, seriously, all I keep hearing is why didn't they defend themselves before now?

Do you really need that question answered?

Ok, I'll spell it out for you..

"If you talk to the media, or say anything about this, you'll lose your job"

Enough said?