Reid Sagehorn, whose apparently sarcastic two-word tweet and resulting seven-week suspension created a furor in the Elk River School District, plans to return to school Monday. But not at Rogers High School.
Speaking publicly about the incident for the first time, the 17-year-old football and basketball captain said he has apologized in writing to the 28-year-old teacher about whom he tweeted "actually, yes" when a post on an ask.fm page asked if he'd ever "made out" with her.
Sagehorn, a National Honor Society member with a 3.8 grade-point average, spoke of anxiety attacks after his suspension began, the added fears of hearing the Rogers police chief say he might be charged with a felony and the lessons he has learned.
"I think it's definitely important that everybody who has heard about the story know how sincerely sorry I am," he said Saturday with his parents at his side in the office of one of his three Minneapolis attorneys.
"No matter how I meant it, [it] doesn't matter," he said of his tweet that appeared on the now-defunct "Rogers Confessions" page on ask.fm. "Sarcasm doesn't belong on the Internet. One bad interpretation …"
Sagehorn's family and attorneys — Joe Friedberg, Ron Rosenbaum and civil rights-expert Robert Bennett — would not disclose which school the senior will begin attending this week. Sagehorn, who plans to attend North Dakota State University in the fall, said he is anxious to return to class.
The story that has gone viral began in mid-January with a "sarcastic" tweet that Sagehorn says "there was nothing behind … I thought everybody would take it as a joke."
He said he had no idea why he was called to the school office, where the principal, athletic director and police liaison officer were waiting for him. A parent had called the office, he said he was told, upset about a possibly inappropriate relationship between Sagehorn and a teacher.
