Star Tribune Publishes Letter from Professors Befort and Cooper

On August 30, 2009, the Star Tribune published a letter from Professors Laura J. Cooper and Stephen F. Befort pertaining to the failure of the Anoka-Hennepin School District to fire two teachers who had harassed a student because of his perceived sexual orientation. A column, published the previous Sunday, blamed labor arbitrators for the school district's decision not to discipline the teachers. The professors' response cited their research study of over 2000 Minnesota labor arbitration decisions that disproved assertions made in the column about how arbitrators decide discipline cases in the public sector.