WATERVILLE, Minn. — Waterville-Elysian-Morristown High School is canceling all remaining homecoming activities after a series of "troubling" incidents this week.
Superintendent John Regan explained the decision in a letter to families on Friday, writing, "As we shared yesterday, there have been some troubling activities taking place related to Homecoming Week. This behavior does not reflect the values of the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown School District. Unfortunately, there was a continuation of these activities yesterday evening."
The school's homecoming coronation, pep fest and dance are among the canceled activities.
"We will continue to take all code of conduct violations very seriously and will issue disciplinary action when possible," Regan added.
One of the incidents referenced by the letter involved WEM students allegedly vandalizing a family's car. Video shared with KARE 11 captured a large group of people vandalizing the car, and photos depicted the racist, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic and homophobic language and symbols that were drawn on the vehicle.
"Racial slurs, homophobic language, a swastika written on his windshield," said Chad Alladin, who discovered the vandalism on his teenage son's car early Tuesday morning. "That's when I decided to call the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Department."
Alladin's security cameras captured clear video of several young people vandalizing his son's car. He says they recognized several of them as students who attend WEM High School.
"The sheriff's deputy who first started the investigation said - when he was talking to one of the people that they have identified in the video - that it would be easier to identify the people who weren't here from the school than the ones that were," Alladin said. "Based off of what I had seen on the camera, I didn't think there was more than maybe a dozen kids here, but then one of the kids actually reported there was at least 50 students here."
Alladin says he feels like the school district's letter to family's on Friday, which took place after yet another unidentified incident on Thursday night, is too little too late.
"My biggest thing has just been frustration with the school itself," he said. "After going public on social media (Thursday), I was contacted by numerous people who had similar experiences due to race, sexuality, one person who reached out has a son who is autistic and was bullied, and all of them said the same thing, we never got anything accomplished from the school, unless we threatened to go to the media."
Alladin says last year students also toilet papered their trees and vandalized his daughter's car during homecoming week, but he says it didn't come close to the hateful messages his family woke up to on Tuesday.
To make matters worse, he says his son already left the school last year due to mental health concerns.
Kent Erdahl: "How's your son doing?"
Chad Alladin: "He's okay. We've been trying to keep him out of this as much as possible. We didn't allow him to see what was on his car. He's been trying to go about life as normal and I asked him repeatedly if he was okay going down this road because my biggest concern is his mental health.
I'm hoping law enforcement will pursue charges against those they can identify. As far as the school goes, I have no faith they'll do the right thing."
The Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office confirmed Friday that the department is investigating the incident and working to identify the individuals involved.
KARE 11 will provide more details as new information becomes available.
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