Star Tribune
How did Faribault become home to Minnesota’s deaf and blind academies?
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Schooling for Minnesota’s deaf and blind residents has been a priority since the earliest days of statehood, giving rise to two institutions in Faribault that continue to thrive today.
But how did this southeast city become home to the Minnesota State Academies for the Deaf and Blind (MSA)? That’s what Faribault native Charles Remington has wondered for a long time. Both of his grandparents attended the deaf school; his grandmother graduated from the academy in 1901.
“Her family would bring her by horse buggy or horse and wagon to the deaf school in the fall and pick her up in the spring,” Remington said.
Remington asked the Star Tribune’s reader-fueled reporting project, Curious Minnesota, to find out more about the academies’ origins.
An education-focused city
Faribault was a commercial hub long before statehood because its namesake, Alexander Faribault, set up a trading post there in the 1820s. He helped organize the city soon after an 1851 treaty with the Dakota people opened southern Minnesota to white settlement.
The primary reason the schools ended up in Faribault is because of a local legislator, Rep. George Skinner. In 1858, the year Minnesota became a state, Skinner convinced his colleagues in the Legislature to establish a school for the deaf in his city.
“One of the things that had always sort of been cornerstone to the city was this idea of becoming a focus for educational institutions,” said Dave Nichols of the Rice County Historical Society.
Alexander Faribault gave 40 acres of land for the new deaf school. But funding the new institution stalled until lawmakers approved it in 1863. The school for the deaf opened later that year, with a school for the blind opening in 1866.
“They’re about as pivotal to the founding of the city as any other institution around here,” Nichols said.
Evolving institutions
The schools grew in lockstep with the city of Faribault, though educators faced challenges from the beginning. When state lawmakers funded the deaf school in 1863, they did not include money to actually build facilities.
School superintendents rented community buildings for years until permanent facilities were built starting around the 1870s. The schools ultimately sold Alexander Faribault’s land and purchased their current campus across the Cannon River from downtown Faribault — next to another school, Shattuck St. Mary’s.
The state oversaw operations of the schools, which made them vulnerable to the whims of lawmakers and education trends. Sometimes the schools were combined, for example; other times they were separated.
“It was all about politics and funding,” said MSA Superintendent Terry Wilding.
In some of those eras, the schools focused more on functional skills than academic pursuits. In the 1870s, students spent about half of their time learning a trade such as tailoring, dressmaking or woodworking. Those goals changed with the times as well.
The eugenics era
At its founding, the deaf school encouraged its students to take leadership positions throughout their communities. National sentiment toward the deaf and blind soured in the 1880s, however.
That stemmed from the work of British scientist Francis Galton, who trumpeted the concept that a person’s genes determined their traits. Galton coined the term “eugenics,” kickstarting a massive movement around the globe to try and “improve” people by culling traits and characteristics they deemed weak. Eugenics today is viewed as a racist, xenophobic reaction to changes to society.
The schools suffered in this era, Wilding said.
“You’ll see a lot of different success stories that happened after 1880 to 1940, because of a lot of the limitations that were set,” he said. “Our students were not going to college or had such limited opportunities in the community.”
In 1879, state officials created an experimental program in Faribault for students with severe disabilities. They lumped the program in with the deaf and blind school, which were combined at the time. It eventually became its own school after then-Rep. Rodney Mott (who had helped found the deaf school) spearheaded a bill in the Legislature.
Originally known as the Minnesota Institute for Defectives, it was less a school and more a state hospital, according to Wilding. The site was repurposed in the 1980s to build Faribault’s state prison.
“If you visit a lot of schools for the deaf, you’ll see schools next to prisons or next to cemeteries,” Wilding said. “It’s places where people want to hide others. It’s pretty common.”
Future growth
The schools were lucky to be in Faribault, however. The nearby railroad line ensured they always grew compared to programs in other states that shuttered over the years. As a result, both schools quickly modernized along with the rest of the country starting the 1940s.
Today, the schools are governed by a board appointed by the governor. About 140 students in the MSA programs are living and learning on campus.
Both academies have gained international recognition throughout their histories. Last month students presented at an international disability rights conference in Vienna, Austria, for example. And the schools count famous alumni such as artist Cadwallader Washburn and actor Daniel Durant.
The academies are also an important part of Faribault. The city has its own deaf club and a thriving community for differently-abled residents. Remington, the Faribault native whose grandparents attended the deaf school, used to work at the state hospital. The family connection spurred one of his relatives to worked as an interpreter at the school for the deaf as well.
The schools plan to expand their services to help deaf and blind students across the state, offering online programs, specialized equipment and other opportunities to students without access.
“We’re building people who become successful in the world,” Wilding said.
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The University of Minnesota has postponed a scheduled Tuesday night lecture from infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci after pro-Palestinian protests that included some protesters barricading Morrill Hall the day before.
On Monday night, several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the building, which houses the Minneapolis campus’ administrative offices, as Students for a Democratic Society used tied-up patio furniture to form giant barricades blocking the building’s large front windows and its entrances. The protesters demanded the U divest from companies with ties to Israel. At least 11 of the protesters were arrested.
The university decided to postpone Fauci’s lecture set for Tuesday night because of “unexpected and complicated incidents” over the past day, university spokesman Jake Rickersaid in an email.
“Given the importance of this lecture and the unexpected and complicated incidents that occurred on campus in the past 24 hours, University officials determined it best to reschedule to ensure a great experience for attendees and our University community,” Ricker said.
All tickets for the lecture will be voided and information about the rescheduled date will be posted later, the university said in an online post about the postponement. Pre-paid parking will be automatically refunded, the university added.
Additional pro-Palestinian protests took place Tuesday afternoon at the university in front of Coffman Memorial Union. The protests prompted university officials to temporarily close down at least a dozen buildings in a Tuesday alert. Those included: Coffman Union, Weisman Museum, Hasselmo Hall, Ford Hall, Vincent Murphy Hall, Tate Lab, Morrill Hall, Northrop Auditorium, Johnston Hall, Walter Library, Smith Hall, and Kolthoff Hall. All other East Bank campus buildings were switched to keycard access only, according to the alert.
An anti-Fauci rally had also been planned by conservative group Action 4 Liberty to coincide with the lecture at the university, but that was moved after the lecture was canceled.
Star Tribune
Aunt IDs 3-year-old who was fatally shot in Minneapolis home, speaks about what happened
A close relative on Tuesday identified the 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot this week in his family’s northeast Minneapolis apartment a day earlier.
Woods said police have told the family that Jajuan got ahold of the gun and it went off.
“Someone left a loaded gun [in the home,” said Woods, who has started an online fundraiser for her sister, Charlotte Williams. “He got ahold of it thinking it was a toy.”
Woods said her nephew, who went by Junior, “loved trucks and dinosaurs. He was just so silly and goofy. He was a momma’s boy.”
Jajuan suffered a gunshot wound to the top of the head, a source with knowledge of the incident told the Star Tribune. Paramedics rushed the toddler to HCMC, where he died a short time later.
Woods said she did not know who owned the gun.
Police spokesman Trevor Folke said Tuesday evening there have been no arrests and had no update to share in the “active and ongoing investigation.”
Bergman is championing efforts to boost literacy and invest in early childhood programming, and getting there, she said, requires financial sustainability, and that may mean closings and mergers. She attended last week’s finance committee meeting — as she’s done on a regular basis — and described the mention of “opportunity” as another rosy way of avoiding hard truths.
The district is spread too thin, she said. Some schools could take more students. Yet in others, class sizes are huge and caseloads so large that educators can’t build relationships with students and families, she said.
“I just fundamentally believe, and it’s been one of the objectives of my campaign, to be someone out in the community talking about this moment, listening to reactions, and listening for the places where families could get on board with the possibility of their beloved school having to close,” she said.
A way to get there, Bergman said, is by consolidating buildings, and in turn, expanding programming — perhaps not far from the school left behind.
Callahan argues that the mere mention of closings is causing families to leave the district: “This is not something that should be talked about so flippantly,” she said.
She said she would entertain the idea only if there also are plans to stabilize and recruit students, plus answers to three questions: How much money is being saved by closing a building? How many students will be retained if the school closes? And how many new students have to enroll to keep it open?
