WADENA-DEER CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT

Victim’s mother says central Minnesota school threat was racially motivated

Frank Lee — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:24:47 GMT

WADENA, Minn. — What would you do if a student threatened to kill your child or harm others?

Kristy Higgins, of Wadena, said she alerted authorities about Snapchat photos sent by a Wadena-Deer Creek student on Jan. 21 that did just that — threats from a classmate with a history of harassing her interracial daughter.

“He Snapchatted my daughter and told her that he was going to kill her and all her Black friends and then was going to shoot the school and sent his pictures of the guns,” Higgins said about one of the boys she claims is a bully.

The WDC �� District canceled classes on Jan. 22 as a result, but Higgins claimed WDC Middle/High �� Principal Tyler Church failed to take her seriously in the past.

“It's been going on probably since October, and I've contacted the school probably three or four times and I've talked to the principal. My daughter was being called racial slurs and it was disrupting her whole day,” said Higgins, a wife and mother of five.

“He told me that he would handle it and he never told me anything else. He never told me what happened to them, what they did. I asked for, like, a parent meeting, and that just didn't happen.”

Higgins said a pair of boys attending WDC Middle/High �� would intimidate her daughter, who is a 10th grader, simply because her mother is white and her father, Robert Higgins, is Black.

Kristy Higgins said of one of the boys: “He would, like, follow her around and just call her all kinds of names — you know, ‘monkey’ and, you know, he would use the ‘n——r’ word and just stuff like that — in hallways and in classrooms.”

Higgins works as a phlebotomy technician at the Staples-based Lakewood Health System. But when the bullying escalated recently to include Snapchat photos sent on Jan. 21 depicting firearms, she said she had to share the alarming pictures with authorities before something tragic might happen.

“We are thankful that someone came forward with the information as quickly as they did,” Superintendent Lee Westrum said in a news release the day classes resumed on Jan. 23.

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Higgins said: “When this stuff happens, it's got to be dealt with. You can’t just let this go. I mean, this is why kids kill themselves or don't attend school, because nobody stopped it.”

Higgins said her children have been a part of the WDC �� District for three years and the harassment of her children began last school year.

“All threats to our school or students are taken seriously and investigated thoroughly,” Church said in the release. “Unfortunately, this is the stuff we have to deal with in today's world, especially with social media. Local law enforcement is handling the situation.”

Higgins said her 16-year-old daughter is no longer enrolled in Wadena Middle/High �� after being tormented by her peers. She also said the boy who sent the Snapchat photo to her child has been expelled.

“She never wanted to go to school,” Higgins said before the expulsion. “I fought with her and fought with her and then she’d skip classes. … She didn't want to go to the class with the boys, and it just turned into a big mess.”

Higgins believes the problem of racism in the community starts in the home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 1.1% of Wadena County’s residents identified as Black and 2.3% as interracial, compared to the 95.1% who identified themselves as white in the latest census.

“I have two kids in the elementary school that haven't been to school all week because I have a first grader that's getting teased on the bus,” Higgins said last week. “And it’s just ridiculous. … Racism is a learned behavior. You’re not born racist.”

Classes and school operations resumed Jan. 23 after the one-day cancellation with “an increased police presence” in and around the school, according to school officials, and counselors were available for any students who wanted to talk to someone about the threat.

“My problem with the whole situation is they don't tell you anything as parents. … That's very frustrating because every parent has the right to know,” Higgins said.

Church stated in the release: “We understand that there may be questions, but at this time we are limited as to what information we can disclose due to data privacy laws and the fact that this is still an active investigation.”

Higgins said of the Snapchat sender: “He lives (near) us, but we don't know if he's just wandering around or if he’d be in a different school and is going to do that again.”

Higgins was born and raised in St. Paul but eventually settled in Wadena, where she has lived with her family for five years to avoid some of the problems associated with big-city life.

Racism is a learned behavior. You’re not born racist.

“Anywhere you go, you're going to have the racism problem,” she said. “It's just when it happens though, you have to stop it, especially in the schools. You have to stop it somehow.”

Education Week journalists began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths. There have been 185 such shootings since 2018. There were 38 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year.

“My goal is to hopefully stay there, but we’ll see how it goes,” Higgins said. “The elementary school is great — my kids love it there — just having issues with the high school is all.”

Those with questions or concerns about this situation are encouraged to contact Church at 218-632-2155 or tchurch@wdc2155.k12.mn.us. Anyone who has any information that could assist in the investigation into the threat should call the police at 218-631-7700.

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Aaron Simmons sings about Wadena. He’ll perform at the June Jubilee Country Concert.

Frank Lee — Thu, 18 May 2023 12:00:00 GMT

Aaron Simmons’ country song “Nobody’s Home in Wadena” hits close to home.

“I worked a summer job in Wadena in the summer of 2016. And that was kind of the start of the whole story of the ‘Nobody's Home in Wadena’ song,” he said. ”I lived in a camper at Sunnybrook Park for three months … and that summer is when I kind of fell in love with Wadena.”

The Stewartville native’s parents Dan and Teri Simmons are Wadena High �� graduates. And the 28-year-old spent his formative years working summers in Wadena.

“Stewartville is a town just south of Rochester – about 6,000 people – really not that dissimilar to Wadena,” Simmons said. “But with Stewartville — being born and raised there – I'm very, very proud of where I come from and my roots .. that kind of made me who I am.”

Simmons will headline the inaugural June Jubilee Country Concert on June 9 at Burlington Northern Park. The Nashville resident included the first June Jubilee concert as part of his tour.

“As an artist, I've always gravitated towards country music. … For me, it's always been the storytelling. … And for me, my story comes from small towns, it comes from hard work, it comes from being kind to your neighbors. It comes from so much of those small-town aspects," he said.

Simmons released his debut album, “Third St. SW,” independently in 2020. The record peaked at No. 5 on the iTunes Country Albums Chart, according to his biography, and its second single, “That’s My Hometown,” played more than 100,000 times across various platforms.

“That's still country music when I can still talk about friendship and I can talk about family in my hometown and love and loss and all of these things that I have experienced … kind of blend into the artistry that I can tell stories that are very rooted in where I come from,” Simmons said.

He graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a degree in multimedia journalism before he took the world of country music in Minnesota by storm.

“I've been doing video storytelling for much of my life and it's just the storytelling aspect of music is kind of what gravitated toward me to that," said Simmons, who was editor-in-chief of the university’s student-run, award-winning newspaper The Advocate.

Simmons’ storytelling has paid off. He was nominated in three categories at this year’s Midwest Country Music Organization awards: Song of the Year (“Nobody’s Home in Wadena”), Video of the Year (“Nobody’s Home in Wadena”) and Male Vocalist of the Year

“So I come back to the Midwest every two to three months to play a run of acoustic shows, to visit family,” said Simmons, who lives in Nashville. “My parents have a cabin in Otter Tail County, … and I'm able to come into Wadena and see my mom's parents and visit them.”

Simmons was also nominated for New Artist of the Year in 2021 by the Midwest Country Music Organization, and “Nobody’s Home in Wadena” held the No. 1 position on Spotify's Local Pulse: Minneapolis chart for two consecutive weeks in August 2022, according to his biography.

“The amount of comments that I've gotten from folks over the last year about this song, and how it reminds them of the relationship with their grandparents or their parents who have passed on, it's been an experience that I can't describe. … It's just so special. It's so wonderful,” he said.

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Simmons has lived in Nashville since 2021 and, according to his biography, is influenced by other musicians such as Garth Brooks, Brett Eldredge, the Brothers Osborne and Tenille Townes. But he still recalls his time in Wadena fondly.

“It was one of my favorite summers and one of my favorite times in my life was living in Wadena in that camper. It was like my first taste of independence,” Simmons recalled. “I was really starting to cut my teeth in music as well. I was starting to write my own songs.”

Simmons has opened for Scotty McCreery, Parmalee, Restless Road and Kat & Alex, and performed the national anthem last year at We Fest in Detroit Lakes, according to his biography.

“But living in Wadena and going to the Boondocks (Cafe) and going to The Uptown and playing Frisbee golf – it was one of I think my most formative summers,” Simmons said of the summer of 2016.

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The June Jubilee Country Concert will take place at Burlington Northern Park. The Wadena Area Chamber of Commerce and Superstation K106 helped make it happen and it is presented by Becker Transport & Aggregate. Tickets for Simmons’ show are $10.

“We're just extremely excited to be a part of this,’ Simmons said. “I grew up in Stewartville but I really feel like Wadena is another home for me, especially with my family being from there. We're just really looking forward to that night and spending time in town and seeing people.”

If you go Who: Singer-songwriter Aaron Simmons. What: Inaugural June Jubilee Country Concert. When: 8 p.m. Friday, June 9. Where: Burlington Northern Park in downtown Wadena. Cost: $10 per person. (Bring your own lawn chair.). Ticket info: https://bit.ly/42Hml9A.

FRANK LEE is the features writer for the Wadena Pioneer Journal. He may be reached at 218-631-6470 or at flee@wadenapj.com.

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