When Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, she highlighted his service as a congressman, soldier, teacher and coach. But she also mentioned his support for gay students at Mankato West High School. It was at that school in southern Minnesota where Jacob Reitan says he came out in 1999 while he was a student.
Former students and fellow educators remember Tim Walz as “Midwest dad” who modeled curiosity for the world and respect for all while teaching geography and coaching football at Mankato West High School. Mankato West High School’s football state championship wins are painted on a storage room near the football field, beginning with the 1999 win while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was on the coaching staff in Mankato , Minn., Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024.
Walz, a world geography teacher, offered to be the group’s faculty adviser. That mattered, Reitan said, to a young man who had had his car window broken and a gay slur scrawled on his family’s driveway.“He had the ability to talk about issues of bullying in a way that helped both the bully and the bullier,” Reitan said. “He made clear that bullying makes no sense. It doesn’t help anybody. And it made the school safer for me.
“He made the world feel smaller and more approachable,” said Nicole Griensewic, a student in Walz’s geography class. “And so he would talk about China like it wasn’t so far away and it wasn’t so foreign.” Ann Vote remembers Walz as an extrovert who was passionate not just about teaching kids, but learning from them. He supported her vision for a unique prom theme that was not included in the school vendor’s premade prom kits and required nearly all the decor to be made by hand.When he subbed for one of her classes, he showed a video that he continuously stopped so he could excitedly explain various elements of it.
John Considine, an offensive lineman on the school’s 1999 state championship team, had Walz for geography class. Considine would often cut his lunch break short to show up early so the two could chat.
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