A female teacher at East Ridge High School in Woodbury was placed on administrative leave Thursday after she reportedly repeatedly used a racial slur while talking with students, officials said.

The teacher was “immediately walked out of the building” after students reported the staff member had used the slur, said Shawn Hogendorf, a spokesman for South Washington County Schools.

The teacher, who was not identified, was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, he said.

In a letter sent to families, Principal Jim Smokrovich wrote that he received a report Thursday morning that the staff member used a racial slur “while discussing inappropriate comments a student was making toward other students.”

The staff member “repeated the racial slur multiple times during the conversation,” Smokrovich wrote.

“As soon as we were made aware of this situation, we met with the students who reported what they heard the staff member say, and connected with their families,” he wrote. “Understandably, the students were upset by the use of the racial slur. We are grateful to the students who were brave enough to bring this forward and to support our East Ridge values.”

Staff are available to meet with students if they are “in need of additional support to process this incident,” he wrote.

East Ridge “does not tolerate derogatory, discriminatory or racist language,” he wrote. “As educators, we must be held to the highest possible standard. I offer my sincere apology for the actions that took place in our school.”

Officials in the school district last fall banned a substitute teacher from its classrooms after he allegedly reenacted George Floyd’s murder during classes at Woodbury High School.

Meanwhile, the South Washington County school board on Thursday night voted 5-2 to update the district’s racial equity and inclusion policy to remove duplications and clarify definitions and language. Board members Ryan Clarke and Eric Tessner dissented.

The rewritten policy states that district administrators will “condemn hate speech and expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination and ethnic or racial intolerance.”

Hate speech is defined in the policy as speech that either disparages, demeans, targets, “threatens or harasses a person or group based on protected class status.”

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Oklahoma City — At the start of this season, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch asked his team whether it was a Western Conference Finals team a year ago, or if it was simply a team that reached the Western Conference Finals.

A similarly pertinent question could be asked of Minnesota through two games of this year’s conference title round: Are the Timberwolves a title contender, or merely one of the last four teams still playing?

Right now, Minnesota looks a lot like the latter.

The Wolves were thoroughly out-played again Thursday in Game 2, getting their doors blown off in the third quarter en route to a 118-103 loss in Oklahoma City. Minnesota now trails the best of 7 series 2-0, with Game 3 at Target Center on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received the MVP trophy on the floor ahead of the game, and proceeded to show everyone why he received the honor in the 48 minutes that followed. The superstar guard scored 38 points to go with eight assists. His wingman, Jalen Williams, tacked on 26 points.

Still, Minnesota was down just three late in the first half thanks to some hot 3-point shooting out of the gates. But that’s where the wheels began to fall off.

Oklahoma City closed the frame on a 5-0 run to take an eight-point advantage into the break. Then the floodgates opened in the third. The Thunder scored 35 points in the third quarter, including a 25-6 run that put the game out of question.

Minnesota was down 22 at the end of the frame.

The Timberwolves played two quarters of good offense, but at this point, it looks as though perfection may be required to contend in this series with the 68-win Thunder.

They’ll have another chance Saturday to produce just that, or at least something close to it, in what now looks like a must-win game back in Minneapolis.

The Minnesota Frost booked a return trip to the PWHL Final with offense, dispatching Toronto in the league semifinals by scoring 18 goals in four first round games. But the championship round is proving to be a different game altogether.

After another defensive battle, Britta Curl-Salemme scored her second goal of the game in overtime, lifting the Frost to a 2-1 come-from-behind win over the Ottawa Charge in Game 2 of the Walter Cup Final, knotting the best-of-five series 1-1.

Game 3 will be played Saturday at 4 p.m. CDT at Xcel Energy Center.

“They took us off our game and took it to us, especially in the first half,” Frost coach Ken Klee said, crediting Ottawa’s defense. “I think in the third period we finally got to our game and started getting pucks in and playing the way we know we can play. But it was a tight game.”

With an Ottawa defender draped on her in the overtime, Curl-Salemme slapped a low shot that beat the Ottawa goalie to send the series back to Minnesota and give the Frost the home ice advantage.

Trailing by a goal with less than a minute to play, the Frost got their fifth power play of the game when Grace Zumwinkle was hauled down in front of the net. With goalie Maddie Rooney on the bench and Minnesota on a 6-on-4 advantage, Curl-Salemme slapped a rebound between the Ottawa goalie Gwyneth Philips’ knees with 15.4 seconds remaining to force the extra session.

Curl-Salemme, a rookie who played college hockey at Wisconsin, has made some enemies with controversial social media posts when she was a teenager, and with physical play that had her suspended for part of the semifinals. She was booed by Ottawa fans every time she carried the puck, and after the winning goal.

The PWHL has shielded her from the media this season, and a Frost official said Curl-Salemme was in the trainers room and unavailable for postgame interviews on Thursday.

“She’s an outstanding player, an outstanding person, an outstanding teammate,” Klee said. “No one’s happier for her than our entire team. She’s obviously had to deal with some adversity and stuff and she rises above it.”

Rooney finished with 37 saves for the Frost, improving to 3-0 in the playoffs.

The game was scoreless with less than three minutes left in regulation. Then Ottawa’s Rebecca Leslie lifted a puck from Frost defender Maggie Flaherty behind the net, and Jocelyne Larocque slipped a low shot past Rooney to give the Charge the late lead.

But Minnesota’s special teams, which had been stymied for the game’s first 59 minutes, found a way to draw level late. Philips had 22 saves for Ottawa, which lost at home for the first time in the playoffs.

Philips sticked away a backhand attempt by Minnesota’s Brooke McQuigge just 35 seconds into overtime, with the Frost forward getting loose in front of the Ottawa net.

As they have done often in these playoffs, the Frost’s offense took a while to get going, but made a stronger push late in the game.

The game’s first power play went Minnesota’s way, and the Frost kept Ottawa hemmed in for much of the two minutes, but managed only one shot on Phillips, as the Charge did exemplary work clogging the net-front and blocking shots.

Early offense continued to be a struggle for Minnesota. After putting four shots on goal in the opening period of Game 1, the Frost had just three first period shots on Thursday.

Things started even worse for Minnesota in the middle frame, as their offense still sputtered and the Frost’s second power play of the game was a disaster, with the Charge controlling the play and testing Rooney repeatedly throughout the two minutes. The Frost made a push late in the period but was still out-shot 16-6 in the frame.

“I was seeing the puck well, but I thought the team did a great job of  tying up sticks in front of us and clearing bodies out of the way to make it easier for me to see,” Rooney said. “I think it just says a lot about our team, being down and being able to tie it with 15 seconds left and getting the win in overtime.”

After holding Ottawa without a shot on an early third period power play, the Frost again went to the player advantage when Sophie Jaques was hooked on a rush to the net. This time Minnesota got a pair of pucks to the net front, but still could not solve Phillips.

Rooney, the former Minnesota Duluth star who backstopped Team USA’s 2018 Olympic gold medal, had started Games 2 and 3 of the first round series versus Toronto, putting up unimpressive numbers in saves percentage and goals against, but winning both contests.

Ottawa played Game 2 without forward Katerina Mrazova, who was injured in a neutral zone collision with Curl-Salemme in the series opener.

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Members of inmate-rights organizations gathered Thursday in Bayport to demand input into the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ plan to shutter the Stillwater prison by 2029.

Among their demands: No new prisons. No double-bunking. Permission for those serving life sentences to remain at Stillwater through the end of the year. Full implementation of the 2023 Minnesota Rehabilitation & Reinvestment Act before transferring any inmate (MRRA allows qualified inmates a chance to shave an additional 17 percent off their sentences).

“This move is too big of a move to happen without the input of greater, wider community input, specifically, justice-impacted people who have served time in Stillwater,” said Antonio Williams, the co-executive director of T.O.N.E. U.P. Inc., an organization that helps people leaving incarceration. “(These) demands must be included during this transition.”

About 1,200 men are housed in the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater, which is located in Bayport.

Among them is Cornelius Jackson, who is serving life in prison without the possibility of release after being found guilty in 2006 of aiding and abetting first-degree murder.

“We’re here today not just because Stillwater is closing, we’re here because real lives are being uprooted and disrupted,” Alissa Washington, Jackson’s fiancée, told the small crowd gathered at Lakeside Park, just a mile south of the prison. “People who have been in this facility for decades are now being moved like baggage. Let me be very clear: this transition is happening, so it must be done with care, accountability and dignity.”

Special care must be taken with the inmates’ personal property, including photos, legal documents, clothing and books, said Washington, founder of Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-Sentenced Families Council-MN. “And when (personal property) arrives at the new facility, it must be accepted, regardless of a different warden’s rules,” she said. “It’s not right to force someone to repurchase clothes or essentials just because the rules changed from one prison to another. That’s cruelty, not policy.”

Zero double-bunking is the preference, but if bunking must happen, inmates “must have the right to choose their cellmate,” Washington said. “It is reckless and dangerous to place someone from the Aryan Nation in a cell with a practicing Muslim. That’s not just bad policy, it’s how you get people hurt or killed, and we’re not going to stand by and allow that.

“This transition should not create new trauma,” she said. “It should not result in violence, lost property, or emotional harm. These are not numbers, they are people — people who we love who are surviving in cages.”

Phased closure

State leaders last week agreed to a “phased closure” of the Stillwater prison, citing safety and costly maintenance concerns at the facility, which was built in 1914.

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Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said the closure would end state investments in an aging facility and eliminate safety concerns at the prison for both staff and inmates. The closure is expected to be completed in two phases upon passage of the public-safety omnibus bill at the Legislature.

The first phase involves reducing operations and staffing over several months, moving inmates to other prisons, and conducting studies on logistics, closure impacts and the site’s long-term future, corrections officials said. During the second phase, which is slated to begin in July 2027, the site will be vacated. Full closure is expected by June 30, 2029.

Unions representing correction officers and staff at Stillwater have called for a halt to the plan, calling the budget agreement that includes the closure “shortsighted, downright dangerous, disruptive and deeply disrespectful to the workers that keep the community safe and the inmates safe.”

A corrections spokeswoman said the organizers of Thursday’s press conference had not reached out to Schnell to offer their suggestions, but that he would be open to “gaining their perspectives and insights” and planned to connect with them to schedule a meeting.

In response to a question about whether corrections would adopt the safety protocols for the transition proposed by the inmate-rights groups, Shannon Loehrke, the agency’s director of communications, said officials were not prepared to discuss them at this time.

“Safety and security are always primary considerations” in the Department of Corrections, she said.

Minnesota Rehabilitation & Reinvestment Act

Loehrke said the phased closure of the Stillwater facility is “entirely separate” from the implementation of the Minnesota Rehabilitation & Reinvestment Act, which she said is in the “very early implementation stage” with pilots at the prisons in Shakopee and Moose Lake.

“The department is keenly focused on successful implementation of MRRA policies, and we will not compromise effective intervention efforts,” she said.

A long-term plan for rehabilitating or replacing the Stillwater and St. Cloud prison was recommended in 2020 by the Office of the Legislative Auditor in a report titled “Safety in State Correctional Facilities,” Loehrke said.

“The phased closure of Stillwater is regarded as a step in the direction recommended by the OLA,” she said. “As the phased closure plan is implemented, the DOC needs to ensure that the state has modern, safe and secure correctional facility capacity to serve the long-term needs of Minnesota’s criminal-justice system.”

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Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the Stillwater State Prison Historic District in Bayport includes the original walled compound designed by architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., and constructed in 1910-1914, along with its associated staff housing area. DOC officials said Thursday that there will be a decommissioning study to figure out possible future uses for the correctional facility and site, which sits on about 180 acres.

The study will explore options for decommissioning and vacating the facility’s physical and security infrastructure, analysis of requirements for buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and examination of development opportunities for the site, Loehrke said.

DOC officials reached out to Bayport officials last week after the announcement of the closure was made, Bayport Mayor Michele Hanson said.

“At this point, it’s too early for us to have any comment other than we hope that everything transitions smoothly and that we’re involved in the process as to what happens with the site,” she said.