Data privacy limits

board discussion

By Joanna Miller

Staff Writer

The recommendation to fire a Prior Lake High School campus supervisor was pulled from the School Board agenda Monday evening.

Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board Member Lee Shimek motioned to remove the recommendation to terminate Chris Lind.Students protest before the
School Board meeting Monday.

The recommendation to terminate Lind’s employment effective May 25 was made by Director of Human Resources Tony Massaros.

Shimek’s motion was seconded by Board Member Diane Ziemann and approved 5-0, with Board Members Eric Pratt and Tom Anderson absent.

Attorney Joe Flynn, legal counsel for the School District, said data privacy prevents the board from releasing a reason for the recommendation or further discussion, as it could impact data privacy laws protecting Lind or students involved.

Flynn did confirm that one complaint led to this action, and “there have been several in the past.”

Previous directives given to Lind in his role on campus are not public, he said.

Flynn said he is unaware of any criminal allegations relating to Lind’s potential termination.

Lind’s job description goal was “to assist in the overall supervision of non-classroom areas during the school day.”

While the existence of a complaint filed against an employee is public information, “the nature and scope of that complaint is private data,” Flynn said.

Meanwhile, freshman Allie Lawler and sophomore Marrissa Rieckhoff, both of Savage, protested outside the District Services Center before the meeting in hopes of saving their favorite school staff member’s job.

Rieckhoff said she thought more students would have shown up, but the meeting coincided with a senior recognition event.

“A lot of them were really bummed they couldn’t be here,” Rieckhoff said.

Petitions to keep Lind in his role have circulated among students and beyond, reaching as far as a PLHS grad stationed with the military in Afghanistan, among more than 400 signatures posted at www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Lind123.

Freshman Tyler Moncur of Prior Lake gathered signatures for a written petition, as well.

“Me and my brother are friends with him. He’s friends with everybody. I just want him to stay around,” Moncur said.

Rieckhoff said students follow Lind’s suggestions, such as not swearing in the hallways or turning down drugs or alcohol at parties, because he treats them as equals.

“He lives his life in a way he can be an example to the students,” Rieckhoff said. “A lot of students feel he’s an authority figure they can respect because he respects them.”

An estimated 40 people filled the room as the board removed the item from the agenda.

Rieckhoff said Lind makes a positive difference at the high school.

“The only time I’ve seen a student mad about Chris is about taking a cell phone,” she said.

 Part of Lind’s duty is to confiscate cell phones used at the school.

“Chris is the bridge between students and adults at the school,” Lawler said.

Some students know Lind through church, Rieckhoff said, but she doesn’t feel he brought his religious beliefs into the school setting.

Rieckhoff and Lawler said they both only know Lind from the high school.

“It’s not like he’s stepping over boundaries,” Rieckhoff said. “He does not go out pushing his beliefs on students.”

Public forum

As Board Chairman Michael Murray opened the floor to public comment, the first speaker, Karen Mord of Savage, brought the issue back to the board.

Mord began, “I’m here in support of Chris Lind…” but was stopped for a legal briefing before she continued.

Flynn explained that Minnesota Statute 13.43 prevents the School Board from delving into personnel issues in a public forum due to data privacy.

Flynn said stringent data privacy laws prevent public discussion.

“It is, indeed, a very sensitive matter,” he said.

Lind’s attorney requested that board action be postponed, in hopes that there “could be a resolution of this matter,” Flynn said. But he added that the attorney is no longer the legal counsel for Lind.

Flynn said the district is open to Lind speaking in the future through legal counsel or other representation “if the employee wants to have a chance to be heard with his attorney or representative.”

Flynn said postponing the agenda item offered additional time to sort things out.

“The complication comes in a setting of this nature … inevitably, there are other people inextricably interwoven,” Flynn said, of students and employees potentially impacted by the issue.

Mord, a long-time area resident, changed her message to freedom of speech.

“As far as I know, we are a republic,” Mord said.

When interrupted again, she spoke up. “Excuse me, I’m exercising my constitutional rights,” she said.

Mord said there have been “rumors flying” in Prior Lake and Savage ever since she and her husband, Gale Mord, a retired teacher of more than 30 years in the district, came to the area.

 “I’m going to speak for the truth,” she said. “Some of you have been around long enough to remember the strike that tore our community apart. This is much, much bigger.”

Joanna Miller can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jmiller@swpub.com.