North High principal to stay with district through end of academic year
Known for her unwavering support for students, Mauri Friestleben's future with district is unknown
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A small group of Minneapolis students and activists on Monday spoke out against the district’s treatment of North High principal Mauri Friestleben.
“I really think this situation is disturbing. There’s a lot of slick behavior going on,” said North High School student president Khadija Ba. “The way they went about the situation with Miss Mauri was completely disrespectful. It’s discrediting, honestly.”
On Friday, the district told families Friestleben was on leave for the remainder of the school year.
In a letter Friestleben said last week that she was terminated because of her role supporting and joining students in a February protest against the Minneapolis police killing of Amir Locke.
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But over the weekend district officials said she was not terminated and could end the school year if she wanted. They also shared they could not publicly answer more questions.
Superintendent Ed Graff wrote:
“Principal Mauri Friestleben will continue as the North High School leader through the end of the school year in an effort to bring this school year to a successful close for North students.”
In response to media questions, Minneapolis school leaders said Friestleben would be serving as principal through the end of the school year, but did not have answers about what would happen to her after the year was over.
Minneapolis NAACP president Cynthia Wilson said she wanted more answers.
“We want to know about the policies and procedures. What policies were followed in her termination in the first place? And secondly, if what she did was so egregious to be terminated, how all of a sudden that you were going to bring her back?” Wilson said. “We’re feeling disrespected, like there was no transparency in this whole process. So now we’re going to flip the script. We’re asking for an investigation to be done here at the Davis Center.”
