north metro

I lost a friend to suicide in 1998 - about a month into our senior year of high school. Shameful that a lot of the same stuff that swirled around his life still happens in our schools. His life may have ended that night, but it was a light that was slowly snuffed out by the misguided actions of others. I only hope parents can learn from this and teach their children that there's a huge world out there...lots of different beliefs and opinions. Being able to have the discussion (even if you never come to agree with the POV of someone that is different than your own) serves us much more than teaching intolerance, hatred and spite.

you know...just because someone doesn't agree with something doesn't make them intolerant and hatefull. The same could be said if you don't agree with their point of view...that means you are intolerant and hatefull. It's so hypocrital of certain groups to always call others names and bully them because they don't agree with their stance. The "big tent" people tend to be the most intolerant people if you don't agree with them.

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." --Robert Frost, American poet

"perceived as dismissive"---->Just when one thinks this story might ride off into the sunset, we get the classic non-apology apology that would make many politicians proud. I doubt this will help the Super as neither activist side will like it. Also, Ms Baca would do well to try clarify the headline with Mr Carlson, as the position statement addressed only suicides in general, of all students, but there was no comment from the Super that "bullying was a cause/the cause" in any AHS deaths. His quote in this story "it's a little bit of a combination," clarifies nothing when the question posed "could have been...." Indeed, the early part of the formal statement reiterates the investigation, and then says a lack of witnesses indicted bullying as a cause. The SAVE professional certainly didnt even use the word "bullying" in his quotes. Does that fit with this storyline? What a strange story. How's this for a future question: "Mr Carlson, do you think bullying was a cause in some of the AHS suicides, and if yes, how many?"

"The new statement, which went on the district website Thursday, acknowledges that "there can be no doubt that in many situations bullying is one of the contributing factors" to suicide." ---- So is it safe to say that the AH11 taxpayer-paid-lawyers gave him the legal 'go-ahead' to say what he did? It is a completely reactionary statement, as a person in the story noticed, and I don't believe he did a complete 180 degree turnaround from his original beliefs! I can't wait to request copies of the AH11 lawyer billing statements when this is over. This issue could have been dealt with easily rather than heads-in-the-sand for years and most importantly, saved lives. How much of the recent AH11 levy approval is going to lawyers and administrators now obviously spending their time trying to Cover Their A's?

You can't really expect much more of an apology than he gave. I know it's not right but you can blame the lawyers. Scroll over if you will to the story of the teen who shot and killed two store clerks in Iowa. His mother was very apologetic for her sons' actions. Now her and her husband are being slapped with a wrongful death lawsuit by one of the victims' families. Their lawyer of course is keying in on the mother of the murderer and her apologies for her sons' misdeeds. She did the right thing but with so many lawyers out there looking to make a buck any way possible this woman would have been better off saying nothing. Our society is morphing into a sorry state.

Apologies come in at a dime a dozen, and mean little to me. Repentance, on the other hand means more has changed in the thoughts and action of the repentant.

I'll believe the reform is real only after we start seeing fundamentalist bullies expelled from the Anoka schools. We lived in Elk River while my kids were in high school, and my kids got bullied simply for not being Christian, and it was of course the fundies doing the bullying. Strange how very unChristian bullying is, no wonder so many are leaving the churches nowadays. As Mark Twain said, "the last one died on the Cross", and there seems to be so much truth to that.

Why can't we have a superintendant with the courage and fortitude to acknowledge the GLBT community and take EFFECTIVE action to limit bullying and harrassment in all it's forms. This nonapology is a slap in the face to all those students who continue to be bullied and harrassed simply for existing as they were made. I expect much more from the largest district in the state.

Too bad the article didn't link to the district site to read the actual letter. It sounds from the article that Carlson speaks about bullying (a step) but does not specifically acknowledge bullying of LGBT students in the district, which is the real issue here.