PLAINVIEW, Minn. – An outside investigator has been hired by the Plainview School Board to get to the facts in a series of pre-homecoming incidents involving high school students. Police also have been folded into the investigation. The decision for an external investigation was made after a video surfaced from an anonymous source. Superintendent Darrin Strosahl said that he has been unable to authenticate the video or to identify individuals, but, he added: “The behavior depicted in the video has no place in our community.” The misbehavior, he emphasized again, was not on school grounds. It was sufficient, however, for Stroshal to cancel a homecoming parade and pep rally. About the video, Stroshahl declined to be specific about the depicted behavior. The existence of the video and the possibility it might end up in wider circulation complicated matters for Strosahl. The video raised new questions not only about the level of bad behavior but also about how school administrators and faculty could have been so out of the loop as not to know any detail of what had occurred. In his initial explanation of disciplinary action against the involved students. Strosahl implied he had enough specific knowledge to assert was “no hazing, sexual harassment or anything racial.”
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Strosahl: “I recognize that many members of our school community would like us to provide student names and consequences. It would be illegal to do so. Please understand that we are obligated to protect the identity of students and are prohibited from sharing confidential student information.”