Chris Lind, a campus supervisor at Prior Lake High School, was reported in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune as someone that students could come to for help through troubled times. Beyond simply bridging students and teachers as a keeper of order on the campus, Lind saw himself as a mentor. The problem for the local school board was that he was also a Christian whose advice to students was informed by his faith. Citing privacy laws, the school board refused to reveal in any detail the substance of the complaints that led to his dismissal at yesterday’s meeting.
Lind, who has been at Prior Lake High School for five years, was placed on administrative leave in May through the end of the school year. He was equally reticent to say much prior to the meeting though he did say that the district had told him not to talk to students — even off campus — about “traditional values,” namely, the district didn’t want him to talk to students about abstinence or their sexual orientation. In his counseling he did both: he advocated abstinence from sexual relationships before marriage and he identified homosexuality as sinful, though not more sinful than other sins.
By early last week, almost 500 people, including many who said they were parents or students, had signed an online petition supporting him, and dozens had shown up at a recent school board meeting to support him. To supporters, Lind’s treatment by the school board is religious discrimination, a trampling of First Amendment rights. “Chris is known throughout the community as a guy that students can talk to,” said Jim Barringer, pastor of student ministries at Friendship Church in Prior Lake, the congregation Lind attends. “We’re dealing with his private time here; we’re dealing with his rights to freedom of speech.”
The Star-Tribune reports that Roslyn Wade of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry said that as an “at-will” employee of the Prior Lake-Savage school district, Lind could be fired “for any reason other than discrimination.” According to Joe Flynn, the district’s lawyer, because Lind wasn’t a licensed school employee or a union member, the district doesn’t need to go through an extensive hearing process before dismissal. There have been no Scott County criminal or civil charges filed against Lind. Human resources director Tony Massaros wouldn’t answer a generic question about what off-campus staff behavior the district can regulate but Bob Lowe, associate deputy director of the Minnesota School Boards Association, said school boards may control off-campus behavior of their employees.
After approval of Lind’s termination on Monday, the board released limited information on complaints against Lind in a prepared statement. They stated that Lind had discussed sexual orientation with students. He was told by superivisors to refrain from such discussion, and received a warning and suspension for a second similar situation before another incident and his termination. Lind said that the board’s statements about him are inaccurate, and he plans to take legal action.
The Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board is the school district’s governing body. It is composed of seven members, each of whom is a district resident elected by voters. The terms have been staggered, with elections conducted in November of odd-numbered years.
As Lind has admitted to the type of counsel he offered to students it would appear that he may disagree with the board concerning the performance coaching that the board has claimed was offered to him. The more important issue however, as both Lind and other local conservative evangelicals realize, is legal action in defense of his first ammendment rights.
Citizens of Prior Lake will have their opportunity to hold officials accountable for their decision through school board elections this November. Decisions by the Prior Lake school board and all public school boards must be responsive to the values of their electorate and this decision has seriously underapreciated both the numerical strength and the traditional values of their Christian constituency.
“swnewspapers” reports that the board is comprised of the following:
Lee Shimek, Chairwoman, 952-447-5314
Michael Murray, Vice Chairman, 952-440-5137
Dick Booth, Clerk/Treasurer, 952-440-4592
Sue Bruns, 952-440-8331
Tom Anderson 952-894-2976
Eric Pratt, 952-440-2945
Diane Ziemann, 952-233-4160
Click this link for additional contact information and for frequently called numbers
Click on this link for access to a Prior Lake discussion of the issue
3 responses so far ↓
brian gentry // September 12, 2007 at 11:29 pm |
I can’t believe Lind was fired. He was such a nice guy. I’ve been a student at prior lake high school for two years.
Bryan // April 7, 2008 at 4:12 am |
Good! The man inticed students to “pick on Lesbians”. That is grossly inappropriate and horribly “un-Christian”.
I’m awfully disgusted with you that you’re even supporting this guy. I’m also surprised at the audacity you have to SHROUD THIS BEHIND 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS! No one has the right to indoctrinate people, let alone kids, with their own religious view point. They especially don’t have the right to intice hate.
I swear you Fundamentalist Christians will be the death of this Country.
C. Eric Bäck // April 7, 2008 at 6:37 am |
I’m not sure that it is clear that the man caused others to “pick on Lesbians.” If he did, he acted wrongly.
Sharing a story culled from several sources does not necessarily constitute support but the peculiar circumstances deserved broader attention and individual rights were a legitimate concern.
I respect your right to your opinion and your expression of it outside of the workplace should not get you fired unless you are acting immoraly or illegaly. Sharing a religious viewpoint does not constitute forced conversion. What do we know about Lind’s approach? Within a historically, biblical understanding of the Bible, homosexuality and premarital sex are considered to be behaviors that “miss the mark” (literal definition of sin). Saying this much is not hateful as by a realistic understanding of what the word, “sin” means, we all find ourselves to be sinners (human beings who are less than perfect, missing the mark in one, if not many areas of life).
Lind apparently did not single out homosexuality as any more sinful than any other sin–how is that hateful? It’s also sinful to spread gossip, to lash out angrily at another, to look lustfully at another, and to eat or drink too much! According to the system of Christian thought that we find in the scriptures, we’re all sinful and we all need the forgiveness that comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ.