Two weeks ago, I (Bill Morgan, Editor) inadvertently ran two letters to the editor whose authors opposed voting “yes” on the school referendums in our paper. This, after instructing other letter and column writers that the Patriot has a policy to not allow LTEs within one week of an election that have content in regards to said election. Completely my fault. We messed up.

The policy is in place to keep exactly what might happen from happening  — an opposing viewpoint that can not be rebutted.

I (we) at the Patriot apologize with genuine resolve for the mistake we made in running the two letters to the editors. We have made adjustments and are building protocols for how we plan on handling election letters and columns moving forward. The schools of Big Lake and Becker have always been a priority for the Patriot and we strive each week to bring our readers the news from board meetings, school happenings, activities and sports as best we can. We hope we can salvage and uphold a solid working relationship with the schools and staff, teachers and board members.

Some of our dissenters have said we ran the letters and a previous column with “malicious intent” to harm the schools. That is so far from the truth. We have never done anything intentionally to “cut the legs off” from our local schools and we never will. Our interest is not to sabotage the efforts of our schools but to support and report on what we see, hear, feel and learn. As a reminder, the letters to the editor are opinion pieces written by our readers — not by us. Columns are also opinions of the writers and I hope our readers understand that fact. 

To Superintendents Jeremy Schmidt, Tim Truenbach, Baird members, teachers and concerned readers, my utmost apology and promise to regain your trust.

Bill Morgan, Editor