LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE /schools/lake-superior-college LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE en-US Fri, 18 Apr 2025 23:44:20 GMT Former Duluth professor who was dismissed over COVID vaccine sues college, Minnesota governor /news/minnesota/former-duluth-professor-who-was-dismissed-over-covid-vaccine-sues-college-minnesota-governor Emma McNamee DULUTH,LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE,EDUCATION,GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS,HIGHER EDUCATION,TIM WALZ,COVID-19 VACCINE A former Lake Superior College professor is suing the college and Gov. Tim Walz after being dismissed for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing his constitutional rights were violated. <![CDATA[<p>DULUTH — A former professor at Lake Superior College is suing the college&#8217;s leadership and the governor of Minnesota after he was dismissed from his position in 2022 for refusing COVID-19 vaccination.</p> <br> <br> <p>The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed the suit in federal court on April 9 on behalf of Russell Stewart, who taught at Lake Superior College (LSC) in Duluth for 30 years. The philosophy and ethics professor is seeking to be reinstated as a teacher at the college and an acknowledgment that his constitutional rights were violated.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;During COVID, this was a huge issue of governments often not going through the legislative process and issuing a course of mandates that involve people&#8217;s personal health decisions,&rdquo; said Jenin Younes, litigation counsel with the NCLA, a nonprofit legal organization with a focus on constitutional liberties.</p> <br> <br> <p>In August 2021, as students and faculty returned to campus, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a <a href="https://assets.senate.mn/committees/2021-2022/3096_Committee_on_Human_Services_Reform_Finance_and_Policy/1446-covid19testingvaccination.pdf">policy </a>mandating proof of COVID vaccination for government employees. To prevent transmission, on-site employees could alternatively submit to weekly testing if they weren&#8217;t vaccinated. As a public community college in the Minnesota State system, LSC faculty were included in the mandate.</p> <br> <p>Stewart, 60, requested an exemption from the mandate, citing concerns about limited vaccine testing and the legality of the mandate. Additionally, having already contracted COVID, Stewart argued he had &ldquo;natural immunity&rdquo; and didn&#8217;t require the vaccine.</p> <br> <br> <p>According to the Centers for Disease Control,<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/covid/about/reinfection.html#:~:text=This%20immune%20response%20can%20protect%20you%20against%20reinfection%20for%20several%20months%2C%20but%20this%20protection%20decreases%20over%20time."> post-infection immunity </a>can protect an individual against reinfection, but only lasts several months and decreases over time.</p> <br> <br> <p>Following multiple disciplinary hearings, Stewart was put on unpaid leave in late September 2021, according to court documents. He sent an email to students explaining the situation and why he would no longer be in class. In the email, Stewart stated that he was not against vaccines in general, nor was he particularly opposed to the COVID vaccines that were publicly available. The policy, however, he considered &ldquo;unlawful, immoral, and arbitrary,&rdquo; because it deployed "workplace coercion" to undermine the fundamental rights of bodily autonomy and privacy.</p> <br> <br> <p>This email, and the sharing of political beliefs, would later be cited by LSC as another reason for Stewart&#8217;s dismissal, having violated <a href="https://www.minnstate.edu/board/procedure/522p1.html#:~:text=System%20employees%20shall%20not%20use%20system%20information%20technology%20for%20political%20activities%20prohibited%20by%20Minnesota%20Statutes%2C%20%C2%A743A.32%20or%20%C2%A7211B.09%2C%20or%20other%20applicable%20state%20or%20federal%20law.">Minnesota State&#8217;s policy</a> using school technology for political activity.</p> <br> <br> <p>"He feels he was wrongfully fired,&rdquo; Younes said. &ldquo;He wants his job back. He misses it, and at 60, I don't think he's planning to move away and find a new place to teach."</p> <br> <br> <p>Younes said that her interest was sparked in the case after an &ldquo;interesting&rdquo; interpretation of a Supreme Court case that has long been used as legal precedent where mandated vaccinations are concerned, came out of the 9th Circuit. The case, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/197/11/">Jacobson v. Massachusetts, </a>arose out of the Boston smallpox epidemic in the early 1900s. Decided in 1905, the Supreme Court upheld a state&#8217;s ability to mandate vaccinations in the interest of public health, even when individuals objected.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;That has been, in my opinion, a big problem. A lot of lower courts have read (Jacobson) to stand for the proposition that governments can mandate any vaccine and it should just be rubber-stamped &mldr; if the state says they are doing it for public health reasons, then that's all the court needs to look at and the case is over.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>This, according to Younes, is the wrong interpretation. In her eyes, the government must balance the interests of an individual&#8217;s freedoms in refusing unwanted medical treatment or testing, with the public health benefit. She argued that allowing states to mandate vaccinations when, at that time, things like impact on transmission rates were unknown, could have larger impacts.</p> <br> <p>&ldquo;One has to look at the broader implications of this,&rdquo; said Younes. &ldquo;If the government can force you to do things for your own health, which is sort of the justification that they've fallen back on, that there's no end to what they could do &mldr; the idea that the government can impose medical measures on you without sufficient evidence that it does anything to benefit the public is troubling, and I think it's a slippery slope.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The NCLA, which operates out of Washington, D.C., has been involved in similar lawsuits across the country, with mixed results. While some cases end in dismissal or settlements, Younes said there are active cases regarding challenges to state medical mandates in the interest of public health that could potentially end up before the Supreme Court.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I would hope that the Supreme Court would take a case,&rdquo; said Younes. &ldquo;I think they might be sick of COVID, but if we ever find ourselves in this situation again, I think it&#8217;s important to tee up the law from the circuits for the next time there's an emergency.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The complaint named LSC President Patricia Rogers and several other administrators alongside Gov. Walz. The college responded to media requests stating that LSC is committed to thoroughly investigating all complaints presented to the institution, and would refrain from commenting on ongoing litigation.</p> <br> <br> <p>The office of Gov. Walz did not respond to the News Tribune&#8217;s request for comment.</p> <br> <br>]]> Fri, 18 Apr 2025 23:44:20 GMT Emma McNamee /news/minnesota/former-duluth-professor-who-was-dismissed-over-covid-vaccine-sues-college-minnesota-governor Immersed in the language: BSU grad hopes to teach others about their culture /news/immersed-in-the-language-bsu-grad-hopes-to-teach-others-about-their-culture Joe Bowen LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE,BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY,RED LAKE NATION RED LAKE--At one point, college didn't have much to offer John Daniel. Daniel, then 19, had just earned his GED, and he enrolled in Lake Superior College because he needed something to do, he said. But that changed when he started learning Ojibwe... <![CDATA[<p>RED LAKE-At one point, college didn't have much to offer John Daniel.</p> <br> <br> <p>Daniel, then 19, had just earned his GED, and he enrolled in Lake Superior College because he needed something to do, he said. But that changed when he started learning Ojibwemowin at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.</p> <br> <br> <p>"At some point there at Fond du Lac I realized that's what I wanted to learn," Daniel said. "I didn't know-maybe I still don't know-what I want to do as a profession, my career, but all I know is I want to learn the language."</p> <br> <br> <p>Daniel, now 25, is on the cusp of earning a bachelor's degree in Indigenous Studies and the Ojibwe language from Bemidji State University, plus a certificate of instruction in the language. He'll be one of 42 American Indian students to earn a diploma Friday afternoon at the school's 100th commencement ceremony.</p> <br> <br> <p>From there, he wants to earn a master's degree and a teaching license, and snag a job at Duluth Public حلحلآ‏»­s' Misaabekong immersion program.</p> <br> <br> <p>Daniel, a Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe enrollee, said he grew up speaking bits and pieces of Ojibwemowin. He said he can understand elders who speak the language among themselves-"they try to talk dirty all the time," he laughed-but Daniel was reluctant to say he's fluent.</p> <br> <br> <p>"There's others I work with...they grew up speaking Ojibwe." he said. "That was their first language before they even knew English. So it's hard to compare myself to them."</p> <br> <br> <p>Daniel is an Ojibwe literacy specialist for Red Lake Nation's Waasabiik Ojibwemotaadiwin, a language immersion program for 3- and 4-year-olds. Staff at Red Lake حلحلآ‏»­ District want the tribal program to be a funnel for their own language immersion track, but said finding staff who are fluent in the language and have a teachers license is difficult.</p> <br> <br> <a href="/news/education/4610616-waller-walks-same-path-bsu-grad-wear-great-grandfathers-graduation-attire" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Waller walks the same path: BSU grad to wear great-grandfather&#8217;s graduation attire</a> <p>Daniel said "a huge chunk" of American Indian kids grow up not knowing who they are because it's been lost via oppression and trauma.</p> <br> <br> <p>"So Indian kids try to pick up and be like other people, other races, like the black culture, Mexican culture, white culture. They try to be like that because they don't know how to be Indian...I went through the same thing and I didn't know a lot about my culture," he said. "The little bit that they did teach in public schools was negative.</p> <br> <br> <p>"So I think it's really empowering to learn the language and learn my culture, and by doing that, it's just finding out who I am as an Indian person."</p> <br> <br>]]> Fri, 10 May 2019 04:13:09 GMT Joe Bowen /news/immersed-in-the-language-bsu-grad-hopes-to-teach-others-about-their-culture LSC program helps medics become nurses /news/lsc-program-helps-medics-become-nurses Lisa Kaczke LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE DULUTH - Military medics now have a path to more quickly become civilian nurses in Minnesota with a program that takes advantage of their experience.Lake Superior College's new seven-month program provides the education needed for current and vet... <![CDATA[<p>DULUTH - Military medics now have a path to more quickly become civilian nurses in Minnesota with a program that takes advantage of their experience.</p> <br> <br> <p>Lake Superior College's new seven-month program provides the education needed for current and veteran military medics to work as civilian licensed practical nurses in Minnesota. The Military Bridge Medic-to-LPN Program is the only program of its kind in the state, said Deb Amys, director of nursing programs at Lake Superior College.</p> <br> <br> <p>"We're very proud of it. We're proud to be able to provide this opportunity for our servicemen and women," Amys said. "They're coming in with skill sets that - wow. All we are going to do is make sure that they have the skill sets at the level they need for a practical nurse and that they're crisp on (the skills) again."</p> <br> <br> <p>Amys noted that Jacqueline Semaan, the faculty member teaching the curriculum, began her career as a nurse in the U.S. Navy and has a passion for the program. Semaan said she appreciates the opportunity to give back to veterans through her work.</p> <br> <br> <p>"When you're in the military, you give of yourself 24/7 and to be able to help facilitate a transition to an area that I'm very passionate about - I love nursing, I love caring for people - to help our military individuals fulfill those dreams and to honor their experiences, I feel very fortunate to be able to work with these individuals," Semaan said.</p> <br> <br> <p>The Medic-to-LPN program is a way to get veterans into the workforce right away, said David Martin, the regional veterans education coordinator at Lake Superior College. Their skill sets transfer to the civilian world because they're dependable and responsible, coupled with the medic training. In the program, they also have the benefit of studying alongside other servicemembers and veterans, and access to the college's Veterans Resource Center.</p> <br> <br> <p>"They get the advantage of working with their peers, which are also in the military, and working as a group unit that they're used to," Martin said.</p> <br> <br> <p>The LPN program is the college's second military bridge program. It also offers a popular program for veterans who were trained as physical therapy personnel to become civilian physical therapy assistants. Martin said he'd like to see these types of programs more widely offered.</p> <br> <br> <p>"I like to think that LSC is breaking ground on programs like this," Martin said.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>Building the program</b></p> <br> <br> <p>The Medic-to-LPN program came out of a federal directive to lessen the barriers to civilian careers for servicemembers upon leaving the military. In Minnesota, military bridge programs are being designed for veterans to become law enforcement, paramedics and LPNs.</p> <br> <br> <p>"The focus is to provide our military, who are leaving active duty with a lot of experience, an avenue to use that experience in the civilian world and not to have to jump through so many hoops and start at ground zero again, but to honor the strengths that they're coming to us with and give them credit for that and get them out into the work world in a safe and shortened timeframe," Semaan said.</p> <br> <br> <p>To create the Medic-to-LPN program, staff turned to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing's analysis of the skill sets that medics in each military branch have or are lacking compared to civilian nurses.</p> <br> <br> <p>Military medics are very skill-oriented and typically come into the civilian nursing profession with more skills than a typical nurse performs, Amys said. The college's program will teach students which interventions a nurse can legally do in Minnesota and provide students with the theory behind the skills, Amys said. The program will also provide them with the skills to help patients of all ages in a variety of health care settings, including maternity, pediatric, gerontology and psycho-social care.</p> <br> <br> <p>Speaking from experience, Semaan said, "You are told what you are needed to do, but there's not always enough theoretical background for you to understand why you're doing what you're doing so we're supplementing that. They're learning about all the different body systems and disease processes and how, as a licensed practical nurse, they would care for those individuals, giving them high quality, safe care."</p> <br> <br> <p>It's not unusual for Lake Superior College to have veterans enroll in its nursing program, but they don't always identify themselves as veterans to school staff, Amys said.</p> <br> <br> <p>"Sometimes they do and we have given them some credit for their previous learning if they're in our (registered nurse) program, but it's not to the degree that they are getting with this customized program," Amys said.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>Starting small</b></p> <br> <br> <p>The program's first cohort of military medics began in January with two students and college staff hopes to increase that to a maximum of 10 students in each cohort. They're also working to expand the program in the future to include civilian paramedics who want to enter the nursing profession, Amys said.</p> <br> <br> <p>Students in the college's regular LPN program begin classes in September and then the military medics join in January. The medics take some classes as a separate group and some classes with the other LPN students, Amys said. After a semester of classes, the medics will complete clinical work in May and June and then be able to take the state's LPN licensing test. From there, they can work as an LPN in the health care industry or continue with schooling to become a registered nurse.</p> <br> <br> <p>Semaan said she hopes that, upon completing the program, students have a desire to help others, remember that it's a person and not a diagnosis that they're caring for, and have the ability to provide "safe, high quality care, compassionate care."</p> <br> <br> <p>Overall, the program offers veterans the ability to earn a good wage as a LPN, which "we felt was really important because they do have many life skills and experience that we can draw upon and licensed practical nurses are utilized in all facets of health care," Semaan said.</p> <br> <br> <p>For more information, visit degrees.lsc.edu/military-medic.</p> <br> <br>]]> Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:15:31 GMT Lisa Kaczke /news/lsc-program-helps-medics-become-nurses An inside education: Lake Superior College part of Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program /news/an-inside-education-lake-superior-college-part-of-inside-out-prison-exchange-program Jana Hollingsworth LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE,EDUCATION DULUTH - Billy's life in pictures was laid out on the floor between him and a couple of other students: Billy skydiving and blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Pictures of his newborn niece and his family at a Christmas celebration."You see m... <![CDATA[<p>DULUTH - Billy's life in pictures was laid out on the floor between him and a couple of other students: Billy skydiving and blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Pictures of his newborn niece and his family at a Christmas celebration.</p> <br> <br> <p>"You see me, you prejudge; every person does," said Billy, an inmate at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center in Saginaw, Minnesota. "But you see these pictures. He has a family, he travels. Once you start looking at it from this perspective, you start saying there is a lot more we can do as a society."</p> <br> <br> <p>Billy is a student in a Lake Superior College sociology class, "Criminal Justice in Society," offered as part of the international Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Per the program's rules, only the first names of students, both incarcerated and not, can be shared. The class takes place at the correctional center in the visitor's room, and is typically half LSC students, called the "outside" students, and half inmates of the center, called the "inside" students. The program was created 20 years ago by Philadelphia's Temple University, and now includes more than 100 correctional facilities and higher education partnerships.</p> <br> <br> <p>The college began offering the class in 2012, after instructor Theresa Leopold went through Temple's inmate-taught intensive training program to teach it. More than 300 students have taken the course through LSC since then.</p> <br> <br> <p>The class, with heavy use of group work and discussions, tends to shed preconceived notions, Leopold said.</p> <br> <br> <p>"Most answers people come up with as to why people break laws are just way too simplistic," she said. "People's stories have depth and complexity. ... This class allows us to engage each other as individuals, and learn the common humanity we have."</p> <br> <br> <p>Learning from each other</p> <br> <br> <p>Finding the right students for a class like Leopold's takes some work. Outside students need background checks. NERCC employees vet inside students by their sentence lengths, behavior record and interest-level in the class. Outside students follow the same rules as visitors: modest clothing; phones and keys left outside the room; no food or drink; and no open-toed shoes. A major rule is keeping things on a first-name basis. Last names are forbidden from being exchanged, along with social media accounts and phone numbers.</p> <br> <br> <p>"If anything would jeopardize the program, it's an inappropriate relationship developing," Leopold said, noting also the program's emphasis on avoiding examination of the inmates' crimes or trying to "get inside these guys' heads."</p> <br> <br> <p>The corrections center, which operates as a work farm, has minimal security and typically houses more than 100 men sentenced by courts in St. Louis, Carlton, Cook, Koochiching and Lake counties. The longest stay is one year, but six months is a more typical stay.</p> <br> <br> <p>While the content of the course is valuable to the inmates, the bigger benefit is the interaction with LSC students, said Katy O'Sullivan, senior supervisor of treatment and programming at NERCC.</p> <br> <br> <p>"The inside students often find it exciting to be challenged intellectually," she said. "Some go on to enroll in college after they leave, partly because of being in that class."</p> <br> <br> <p>People have "strong opinions" about how those who break laws should be treated, Leopold said, and not everyone thinks such a class is a good idea. But 90 percent of people who go to jail or prison are eventually released, which makes it all the more important to get to know them as individuals, she said.</p> <br> <br> <p>"A lot of them tell me that for those three hours every week, they feel like they are not locked up anymore," Leopold said. "They are regarded as human, and what they have to say matters."</p> <br> <br> <p>And for the outside students, it usually ends up being more than a course. Some who have gone through it have changed career paths or re-examined long-held beliefs, Leopold said.</p> <br> <br> <p>"It's a class for people willing to step outside of their comfort zone," she said.</p> <br> <br> <p>Several LSC students, many interested in careers in criminal justice, told the News Tribune that the class was eye-opening, and offered the chance to hear people's stories and experiences firsthand. Some said they learned the criminal justice system isn't always fair. One student said the class taught her to be less judgmental.</p> <br> <br> <p>Billy and others were working on final group projects during one three-hour class mid-November, the orange Crocs worn by the inmates the only definitive way to tell the two student groups apart.</p> <br> <br> <p>The point of their project - a photographic look at Billy's life - he said, was to show that he is a person, not a statistic.</p> <br> <br> <p>"The outside students are learning that crime has a name and it has a face," he said, amid his group's discussion that the criminal justice system as a whole isn't doing enough to rehabilitate the incarcerated. A veteran dealing with PTSD, alcoholism and depression, he said he's struggled to get the help he needs at NERCC because of the demand.</p> <br> <br> <p>(O'Sullivan said there is typically a wait list for the therapist who visits the facility.)</p> <br> <br> <p>"The underlying factor with a lot of crime," Billy said, "is mental health."</p> <br> <br> <p>And while one inside student said he sometimes felt "studied," others said the class was meaningful.</p> <br> <br> <p>The Inside-Out program is the kind of thing that helps create change, said inside student Brice.</p> <br> <br> <p>"We are definitely learning from each other," he said.</p> <br> <br> <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figcaption> An inside education: Lake Superior College part of Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program </figcaption> <figure> <img src="https://cdn2.forumcomm.com/fccnn/binary/copy/26/a7/19b5638883a2a4d88c927fd46a33/3840887-199nocp6gdmt2qtxqbpllzjo9t9y97aa9-binary-802304.jpg"> <figcaption> NERCC inmate Billy shares photos from his life with students from the Lake Superior College during a sociology class at the center recently. (Bob King / Forum News Service) </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://cdn2.forumcomm.com/fccnn/binary/copy/4d/eb/0f0cc0a191fbdb600235b87c595b/3840888-1m7i7zp-b6zswul31pisz9dh-cggu7rey-binary-802305.jpg"> <figcaption> Billy, an inmate at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center, makes a point with a student from Lake Superior College during the weekly sociology class, "Criminal Justice in Society," at the center. (Bob King / Forum News Service) </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/1x6aygbp9c9tqq0quqptjmq-57m0c7qeh_binary_802306.jpg"> <figcaption> Theresa Leopold, sociology instructor. (Bob King / Forum News Service) </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://cdn2.forumcomm.com/fccnn/binary/copy/27/f7/3d79afa5e58a31bc2ee829fa64a7/3840890-1xkozt6tilqb3ac9okv3xl3blvz7fqn0c-binary-802307.jpg"> <figcaption> Bryan, an inmate at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center works with a Lake Superior College student on a presentation on the topic of rehabilitation during a recent class at the center. (Bob King / Forum News Service) </figcaption> </figure> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Mon, 27 Nov 2017 11:00:00 GMT Jana Hollingsworth /news/an-inside-education-lake-superior-college-part-of-inside-out-prison-exchange-program Woman injured after being dragged 50 feet by vehicle /news/woman-injured-after-being-dragged-50-feet-by-vehicle Forum News Service LAKE SUPERIOR COLLEGE,ACCIDENTS DULUTH - A woman sustained "significant lower extremity injuries" when she was trapped under a car and dragged for approximately 50 feet Sunday morning in Duluth's Piedmont Heights neighborhood, authorities said.The incident was reported just aft... <![CDATA[<p>DULUTH - A woman sustained "significant lower extremity injuries" when she was trapped under a car and dragged for approximately 50 feet Sunday morning in Duluth's Piedmont Heights neighborhood, authorities said.</p> <br> <p>The incident was reported just after 10:30 a.m. along Springvale Road, a residential street that runs behind Lake Superior College. The Duluth Fire Department reported that first responders found the woman trapped underneath the vehicle, but still conscious.</p> <br> <br> <p>The vehicle was secured and crews were able to use extrication tools to free the woman within eight minutes of arrival, the fire department said.</p> <br> <p>Authorities said it appeared the woman was attempting to prevent the vehicle from rolling down the hilly road when she became trapped.</p> <br> <br> <p>The woman was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Her identity was not immediately released.</p> <br> <br>]]> Mon, 10 Oct 2016 14:05:22 GMT Forum News Service /news/woman-injured-after-being-dragged-50-feet-by-vehicle