Minneapolis North High School principal returns for school year

North Community High School Principal Mauri Friestleben spent much of her Wednesday evening giving and receiving hugs from students, parents and community members attending the school's open house.

"I missed you," she said as she wrapped her arms around a sophomore.

Just as Friestleben welcomed the teenagers back for another school year, they reciprocated the sentiment. For a brief time this spring, it looked like Friestleben — a beloved school leader on the city's North Side — was out as the Polars' principal.

But she's back, and students at the open house rushed to say hello and tell her about their summers.

Ramiyah Jackson, the student council president at North, is "so, so happy" to have Friestleben as the school's principal for her senior year.

"She is always showing us how to be leaders and she stands up for us," Jackson said.

In late May, the district informed parents and students that Friestleben had been put on leave through the end of the school year. In her own letter to families, Friestleben said she had defied the district's wishes by participating in a student sit-in at City Hall in February to protest the death of Amir Locke, who was shot by police.

After public outcry, the decision was reversed and Friestleben finished out the year as North's principal.

Now, just days before classes begin, district leaders are offering scant details about Friestleben's status. District spokeswoman Crystina Lugo-Beach confirmed that Friestleben is the acting principal of North and that an investigation involving her is active.

"We acknowledge and appreciate the community's interest in MPS leaders," Lugo-Beach wrote in a statement to the Star Tribune on Wednesday. "However, like all personnel-related matters, this is not something we discuss publicly."

Friestleben declined to comment Wednesday.

In her May letter to the community, Friestleben explained how she joined a student walkout on Feb. 9 in response to the death of Locke earlier that month. While she and the group of students made their way to City Hall that day, Deshaun Hill Jr. was fatally shot while walking home from school, according to the letter. Hill was a sophomore at North and a rising star on the football team.

Friestleben wrote that she did not follow district protocols for student-led civil actions and was "strongly advised" not to join the walkout.

"The tragedy of that day, though, will never be my termination ... as a result of my choice to join my students," Friestleben wrote in the letter. "That devastation [from Hill's death] will always and forever overpower, for me, what was a lovely example of peaceful protest the Polars engaged in that day."

Latoya White was a student at Nellie Stone Johnson when Friestleben taught there. Now she's sending her freshman student to North under Friestleben's leadership.

"It's fun to see how much she loves this," White said as Friestleben embraced a group of teenage girls circled around her.

"She does what she needs to do to support these students," White said. "She's a pillar of this community. ... Without her, a lot of us wouldn't be as involved."

North parent Danielle Tietjen said having Friestleben at the front door of the school to greet new and old students "contributes to the forward momentum of this new year and new start."

"There are a lot of people who could do that job, but she's the right woman for it," Tietjen said. "It's needed that she be here."

Friestleben ended her May letter with the words she often says to North students: That they are loved, that they are brave, that they are strong, and that they still have a lot of work left to do.