Yes, we change our clothes after gym class, two students told a parent after a public forum Monday.
It wasn’t the only point of new understanding people reached in small conversations after about 35 members of the St. Cloud community spoke to a crowd of about 100 during an event in the Atwood Theatre at St. Cloud State University.
A protest outside Technical High School, movement-restricting procedures in the school that followed a few days later and meetings among Somali-American residents have kept communities across Central Minnesota talking since some students walked out of class March 18.
Two officials from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and one from the Department of Justice took notes onstage Monday as parents, a few Tech students and other community members voiced their opinions on schools, discipline, race and immigration.
According to a statement the office issued Monday and previous comments from the school district, the federal officials are in town Monday and Tuesday to monitor the district’s compliance with a settlement reached on the issue in 2011. The district agreed to take steps to decrease harassment and meet other goals.
The people who spoke Monday had many racial and ethnic backgrounds: white, black, American-Indian, Somali-American, Asian-American and more.
Dennis Dunphy of Avon went first. The self-described Irishman who has lived in the area for more than 30 years said negative talk of immigration bothers him, but newcomers need to assimilate.
Sahur Hussein of St. Cloud spoke of harassment she faced when attending Tech for a year. She graduated from high school in Sauk Rapids, where she said she never faced a comment about her ethnicity. Hussein said she wished speakers at Monday’s forum would have focused more on education rather than immigration.
Kathy Niehaus of St. Cloud, another speaker, said she wished more residents and district employees had attended the event. She said the problems at Tech and elsewhere stem from a lack of respect among cultures. Talking with two students from Tech after the forum, Niehaus learned Somali-American students follow the same clothes-changing rules for gym class as everyone else.
A few parents of white students talked about their kids’ experiences being bullied.
Eurel Nwachi of St. Cloud said that shows problems lie with the district. If both Somali-American students and others are saying nothing is happening in response to complaints, that is the only conclusion, said the St. Cloud State student who grew up in Nigeria.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations organized the two-hour event, which was hosted by the St. Cloud State University Muslim Student Association.
No St. Cloud school district officials or board members had any part in planning the forum. Board member Bruce Mohs and chairman Dennis Whipple attended, and Mohs volunteered as one of the three dozen speakers.
A derogatory Snapchat post showing a Somali-American student spread to other social media in mid-March, spurring students and some adults from the community to protest. They alleged school administration wasn’t sufficiently responding to student complaints regarding the post and other incidents.
Both Tech and Apollo went into containment that day. On March 20, according to police, a verbal disturbance inside Tech led school officials to place the facility in lockdown; Apollo went into containment at that time.
After receiving a request for contact, CAIR met with students March 23.
In recent weeks, Somali-American residents formed a task force to discuss race relations with St. Cloud Superintendent Willie Jett and others.
Former school board candidate Hassan Yussuf said Monday his position on the task force led to his involvement with the forum, where he acted as emcee.