PFLAG’s Cultivating Respect conference promotes safe schools for LGBT and all students

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Close to 250 people gathered in St. Paul on January 18 for the second annual Cultivating Respect: Creating Safe Schools for All Students conference. Organized by the Twin Cities chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the day-long event featured presentations and breakout sessions, followed by an awards dinner and entertainment in the evening. Hamline University’s Hedgeman Center for Student Diversity Initiatives and Programs hosted the conference, donating space at the campus’s Anderson Center to PFLAG. Attendees pick up programs and name badgesPFLAG-Twin Cities president, Carol Curoe, said that last year’s conference demonstrated the importance of holding such gatherings. It came together as stories about teen suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin School District were making the news. “There is nothing else like this for teachers. Continue Reading

Gay and lesbian athletes and allies speak out against homophobia in sports and schools

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Esera Tuaolo, once an NFL defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, is convinced that he’d be dead if he had come out as gay in high school. By contrast, Nick Kleidon, former player on the Breck School hockey team, and 25 years Tuaolo’s junior, did come out in high school, with no negative consequences. Tuaolo, who remains a Twin Cities resident, described “getting choked up,” when he first met Nick, standing alongside his partner, Colin.Some of the audience assembled at HamlineBoth athletes shared their stories at Cultivating Respect, a conference and awards dinner dedicated to work being done in the Twin Cities to create safe schools for all students. Organized by PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Twin Cities, the event was held at Hamline University on January 18. Also participating in the Invisible Athletes Forum was Becca Lindquist, a recent University of California Berkeley grad, Division 1 rower and winner of conference and NCAA championships.If you can play, you can play Moderator Patrick Burke, a scout for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, set the tone and context for the forum. Burke is founder of the You Can Play Project, an effort to end homophobia in sports. He and two others launched the project last year in memory of Brendan Burke, a student manager for the Miami University Red Hawks hockey team, and Patrick’s younger brother. Continue Reading

NEIGHBORHOOD NOTE | Winter Warm Up Scheduled for January 25

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The fifth annual Winter Warm Up, the primary source of funding for the Northeast Middle School after-school theater program, is set for Friday, January 25 from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. at the Grace Center (1500 6th St NE). All are invited to attend.The event will feature music by Buster Phelan (a local band that performs a mix of rock, pop and R & B music, food from local restaurants, beer, wine and a silent auction.All proceeds from ticket sales and the auction directly benefit the Northeast Middle School theater program, which puts on two shows each year: a winter play and a spring musical.  For this year’s fall play the Middle School students combined with the Edison theater group and performed a Shakespearean double feature.  The middle school students performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Edison group performed Romeo and Juliet. Usually 10-15 students participate in the fall play but this year more than 40 students worked on the performance.For their spring musical, Northeast Middle School is staging the full two act version of Peter Pan on April 18 and 19.“Although this is an ambitious undertaking the middle school program has grown to the point where they are ready to tackle this classical musical,” Chris Pratt, chair of the Winter Warm-up committee said.“In keeping with the spirit of Peter Pan, we would really like to be able to “fly” a group of students above the middle school stage,” he said. Continue Reading

NEIGHBORHOOD NOTE | Meet Barb Kapala: Northeast Middle School Community Education Beacons Coordinator

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“It’s all about the kids,” Barb Kapala sums up her work as the Community Education Beacons Coordinator at Northeast Middle School.  She’s been at the job since 2003 and still loves working with the middle school students. It was 2001 when a  good friend encouraged Barb to teach a class in the Minneapolis Public Schools, entitled, “I Believe I Can Fly.”  At that time, she worked fulltime at an HR job but was able to take some time off to teach the class. Barb spent 12 weeks with kids in 3rd – 7th grade, teaching a class not only academic but also in goal setting and confidence building skills.  The class was a success and Barb felt that she had made an impact on the students. That same friend encouraged her to do it full time.  She agreed.  She came into the district in 2002 and later accepting the Community Education Beacons Coordinator position in 2003.The Beacons after school program has been at Northeast Middle School since 1998 and is one of the original Beacons sites in Minneapolis. Continue Reading

NEIGHBORHOOD NOTE | Community education right in the neighborhood

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Did you know that Northeast Middle School (NEMS) is a community education site and offers adult lap and family open swim periods for the community? Or that NEMS and Waite Park is one of the few places that teaches Polish language classes?That’s because NEMS has been a Minneapolis community education site since the 1970s and offers between 50-65 enrichment classes for adults and kids each quarter at affordable prices. It’s a wealth of resources available right in the neighborhood with classes like aqua zumba, Spanish, quilting basics and youth swimming.David Warnest has been the community education coordinator at NEMS for more than nine years. He said that even though Minneapolis community education has offered open swim periods for the community for a number of years, a lot of neighbors are still surprised.He added, “A lot of people don’t know that Northeast is a site for their ACCESS Service Program for adults with disabilities.”  They receive 150 registrations for the program each quarter.Although Community Education casts a wide net of offerings for many different people, David said that “the greatest value community education has is that it is located right in our neighborhoods and can offer the community greater access to facilities within their communities.”The classes vary by community and are there because they are the ones that people register for. Facilities at a different building direct the activities. Continue Reading

New Minneapolis school board member Tracine Asberry focuses on transparency, group effort

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In early July, when newly elected Minneapolis schoolboard member Tracine Asberry found out she’d be running unopposed in District 6,, she was elated to get a head start on contributing to schools and communities. Her district had been the most competitive, with four candidates in the running. After Asberry received an endorsement from the DFL, the other three dropped out.“It was tough,” Asberry said of the campaign. “Running unopposed after that was a beautiful thing.” Since she did not have to campaign against other candidates for her seat on the school board, she had time to work to defeat Voter ID and the Minnesota Marriage amendments, and to work for other candidates during the campaign. Asberry plans to be transparent and vocal. “A lot of things are code: the acronyms, the jargon,” she explains. Continue Reading

MN VOICES | Rosa Tock finds “sense that working together, we can achieve things” in Minnesota

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For Rosa Tock, a first-generation immigrant from Guatemala, the sense of possibility is what impresses her most about Minnesota.  “In Minnesota, I have that sense of possibility that things can be done,” Tock said, “There is always the sense that working together, we can achieve things. That sense of possibility is one thing that really makes me feel at home.”Tock first came to Minnesota on a Fulbright Scholarship to finish her Master’s Degree in Public Policy at the University of Minnesota. As part of the program, Tock was required to go back to Guatemala for at least two years after graduating.However, her husband was still in Minnesota, so she eventually made her way back, drawn to the possibilities that the state offered. Tock started out as a human rights investigator with the City of Saint Paul, looking at incidents of potential discrimination. Continue Reading