728 United worked with the district to understand what happened regarding what was noted as concerning speech between an equity specialist and freshman students. A 4 minute recording of the equity specialist demonstrated advocacy for looting and the burning down of white owned businesses. This shorter recorded clip went viral and made it into several media reports, see links below. This resulted in many concerned parents and citizens. Through emails, see PDF links below, and a face-to-face meeting, the superintendent and board chair indicated their investigation showed that the equity specialist went back to decry violence later in the class and that he was “play-acting” in the moment the 4-minute recording took place. Several parents whose children were in the classroom reported that the district’s investigation did not coincide with what their children told them and provided written statements to the district explaining what happened. 728 United worked to gain access to the full recordings which were provided to the district in good faith. The email chains below, along with the entire recordings, confirm that the district’s investigation of the matter did not match what the full-length recordings revealed. This situation demonstrated both a lack of transparency and the failure of district leadership and the board to act when provided direct evidence concerning employee conduct towards students.
Various Media Reports
https://alphanews.org/minnesota-high-school-equity-specialist-defends-looting-arson/
https://www.thecollegefix.com/audio-high-school-equity-specialist-defends-looting-arson-by-rioters/
District Email Communication Regarding the Recordings
Click on each of the email snippets below to open the full PDF document.
Full Equity Instructor Recordings
The recordings of the entire class were broken into two different recordings due to length, they are listed in sequence. NOTE: Videos may take 5-10 seconds to load.
First video is below:
Second video is below: