Star Tribune
After brawl at St. Louis Park High, school leaders hear parents’ worries
Several St. Louis Park parents called for a zero-tolerance policy on violence during a school board meeting Tuesday in response to a fight in the halls that extended to the parking lot, drawing in more students and adults before school staff and police intervened.
The melees last Thursday afternoon led to the closure of school on Friday.
Parent Caitlin Serrano said she worried the schools are not taking violence seriously enough. She said she was not happy with how the district handled a fight between students that happened at a party after prom last year. She hoped students involved would be punished but, Serrano said, “nothing happened at school.”
Interim superintendent Kate Maguire said those involved in the brawls last week will be punished.
“We have taken swift and decisive action with each participant in the events from last week,” Maguire said, ranging from one-day dismissals to expulsion.
School staff and a St. Louis Park police officer intervened in the fight, and Maguire said two adults were arrested.
No one was seriously injured, Maguire said, and there is no evidence anyone had weapons.
But she wanted to focus on engaging students, a problem faced by districts across the country after the pandemic, rather than creating harsher discipline and adding police.
“Without effective teaching that keeps students engaged, no amount of suspensions, no amount of police officers and no amount of administrators can help our community thrive,” Maguire said during a school board meeting Tuesday evening.
Rachel Hicks, a school district spokesperson, said the high school was closed Friday not because of any additional danger, but to give administrators time to work through a large disciplinary investigation, and to figure out a plan to keep students more secure during final exams this week.
This week, Maguire said, high schoolers will not be allowed to leave campus for lunch, and will have less time to pass between classes. She said there will be a greater police presence in schools this week.
St. Louis Park police pulled officers out of schools in August, instead stationing officers in nearby neighborhoods.
Maguire, who leads the district on an interim basis, said she has seen similar problems elsewhere as schools struggle to help students with their mental health and reengage after the pandemic.
“This is a challenge faced by high schools across our state and nation,” she said.
Transforming the heart of both downtowns, which have much larger buildings than old warehouses, is going to take a lot more money, creativity and time. Josh Talberg, managing director at downtown Minneapolis brokerage JLL, said with no major apartment buildings on the drawing board in either downtown, the fleet of empty office buildings present a golden opportunity to create more housing and lead both cities in a new direction.
“You can can certainly see the fundamentals improving, and you can feel that vibrancy, and that’s ultimately the foundation that’s needed to get investors to reinvest in the city,” he said. “But it’s not as if these 18-wheelers can turn on a dime.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
