Star Tribune
Civil lawsuit targeting St. Thomas Academy’s culture, scaled back by a judge, now hangs on negligence claim
A lawsuit by two St. Thomas Academy graduates alleging a “frat-like” school culture that administrators ignored was scaled back by a judge several months ago, but the private school in Mendota Heights is still fighting civil claims that it was negligent in protecting students.
According to the suit filed in January 2023 in Dakota County District Court, plaintiffs Joseph Kolar and Tucker Bakko alleged they were groped by senior students while they were interviewed for possible school awards. The interviews were run solely by students and without supervision from former staff member Neil Hetherington, who oversaw the class. He retired in 2023.
The plaintiffs also charged that the entire school supported a culture that discouraged “snitching” and allowed for racist, sexist and homophobic comments.
In the first dismissed claim for battery/sexual abuse, the plaintiffs argued the school should be held liable for the abuse by other students. Moynihan sided with St. Thomas’ argument that past cases of so-called vicarious liability involved employer/employee relationships and not school staff/student relationships, and wrote that Minnesota has never held a school liable for a student’s actions. He ruled that the plaintiffs failed to provide evidence to show that Hetherington committed an “intentional tort,” or a wrongful act that would make the school liable.
Kolar and Bakko, who graduated in 2022, did not report the conduct at the time “due to the environment” at the school and out of fear of retaliation by other students, according to the Oct. 10 order from District Judge Shawn Moynihan.
School officials and attorneys for both parties declined to comment, and former Headmaster Kelby Woodard, who led the school during the alleged incidents, did not return a call seeking comment. In an email to the St. Thomas community last year, he called the allegations “unfounded and without merit” following an inquiry from the Star Tribune.
Woodard left St. Thomas after the 2022-23 school year and now works as CEO of the Cristo Rey Network of schools, a national organization of 39 Catholic college preparatory high schools that serve low-income students, according to his LinkedIn page.
The two active claims allege negligence and negligent supervision. The plaintiffs argue that Hetherington ran a loose classroom and that the school could have taken steps to make him supervise the students more directly, thus preventing the abuse.
The judge also dismissed claims of false advertising and consumer fraud against the school, which in promotional materials touts itself as a “safe place” with “a proven learning system” and says it “understands boys,” according to the judge’s summary. Moynihan said the plaintiffs’ claim lacked information generally required to prove false advertising.
The plaintiffs may appeal the dismissals, but only after a decision is made on the two ongoing claims for negligence and negligent supervision.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
