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Editor's Note: SouthHighSucks.com is your independent source for South High news, commentary, debate, and uncensored public forums. We do not represent any school or any school district. This site is run by current and former Minneapolis South High students, led by the site's founder, "Dr. Vinny". We get asked a lot of questions about this site, and we hope that this page includes the answers to your questions. If not, questions can be sent to us through the comment form in the right margin of this page.--Dr. Vinny, SouthHighSucks.com Publisher

A History of SouthHighSucks.com

The SouthHighSucks.com site debuted on March 15, 2002. At the time, it didn't look like much. To be honest, our founders were just blowing off steam about how annoying the administration and all their dumb policies are. The site also had a poll about Kay Kessel, who was an assistant principal at South at the time (she retired in June 2002, and a lot of people are happy about that). Anyway, the poll, which is still on the internet (to view the poll, click here), was a death threat according to South High Principal Linda Nelson. She decided to take the despot route by rounding up our membership and herding us out the door. There were four of us; three chose to resign from the organization in order to avoid more illegal discipline by the likes of Nelson, Kessel and others. Christopher David was the fourth member. Those who attended South High from 1999 to 2002 may remember that Christopher was a longtime columnist for the school paper, The Southerner, and he frequently used his column to showcase disgraceful things the school used to do. So, as you can imagine, school officials didn't like him much. What happened next was little more than a Witch Hunt.

Suspension Means Expansion

On March 19, 2002, four students (Christopher David and the three former members) were suspended for three days apiece for creating this website. The reason was pretty much like "the principal didn't like it". They were also ordered to leave the organization and destroy this site. The other three members decided to leave the organization, but since the site was in Christopher David's name, they could not destroy the site without his consent, which he didn't give. In fact, he began to expand the site the next day. The entire school knew about the site before long, because, at South, word of mouth is fast. It didn't take long for lots of students to see the site, and for a number of them to voice their support--and vote in the Kay Kessel Poll. This further angered the administration. So, on March 22, 2002, the administration decided to suspend Christopher David another 3 days. Later on that same day, the district called to say they are kicking Christopher out of South. This pissed off Christopher, and so, he decided he ought to get in touch with the media. He contacted the City Pages, and they decided to print a story about all this (the article is still available on the 'net: First Amendment Falls on Hard Times at South High). The site was also featured in the Wall Street Journal and was mentioned in many other sites. That increased our visitors dramatically. The site continued it's expansion, and this made the administration very angry.

Server Roulette

It didn't take long for them to harass our web hosts. The first web host we used turned off our site two days after the suspension, on March 21, 2002. It took 2 days to get the site back up, because that's how long it takes to change web hosts on your own ".com"! We can't prove it, because our second host refuses to speak to us, but the district is the likely culprit in annoying them to the point that they couldn't put up with it anymore. So now we are on our third host. They happen to like our site.

Pseudonyms and Vinny

So, it didn't take long for us to decide that we cannot reveal names of our staff, or they might get harassed. Therefore, our staff, except Christopher, began using pseudonyms in April, 2002. The policy has not changed, and so you'll notice that the names of authors are a little comical--and that's because the writers have a sense of humor. Dr. Vinny was the blanket pseudonym, so no matter who wrote the article, we could use the name Vinny without thinking about it. Then we decided to start the Vinny's Education Coalition (more about that further down the page). Anyway, to make a long story short...

Spring & Summer 2002

Christopher David was able to get enough information to keep the site updated during the last couple months of the 2001-02 school year. During the summer, he got some friends to improve the site, which worked out well. They add news about interesting school issues on a regular basis and were able to cover some compelling stories over the summer. This year, with message boards, store and free email up and running, newer coalition members have taken over most day-to-day operations of the site. Christopher still is staying on as the Publisher of the site, and occasionally posts articles on various topics that interest him.

A Much-Needed Makeover

The site continued to grow through late 2002, and in early 2003, the coalition members agreed that they had outgrown the original page layout and needed a redesign. After over six weeks of regular design sessions, they finally came up with the design currently being used on SouthHighSucks.com, which debuted in mid-February 2003.

What is SouthHighSucks.com's mission?

To provide a place for news and debate about South High, the Minneapolis Public Schools, and education in general.

What is Vinny's Education Coalition?

An organization YOU should be a part of.

Vinny's Education Coalition is a private organization based in Minneapolis, MN, that provides advocacy to students of wasteful bureaucratic schools. Established in March 2002, the organization has had moderate success with it's first project, which is the site you are currently viewing.

The coalition is interested in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of schools worldwide, starting close to home. If you are involved in a Twin Cities area school and would like to have a consultation with one of our proud members on how you can expose graft and corruption in your school, feel free to tell us about it--just send us a note using the comment form in the right margin of this page. Our organization will partner with you in the improvement of your school. We read each and every message sent to us, and when there is contact information supplied, we will send you a thoughtful reply.

Hey, thanks for reading about our organization! I invite you to click on the link below and check out our visitor forum, where you can express your views without fear of retribution.--Dr. Vinny, SouthHighSucks.com Publisher

Check out our Message Board!