Faribault Dance Team Doubts Sincerity Of Lakeville South's Apology
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - It's been a month and a half since a dance team's state title was protested by their competitors.
Last month, the Faribault dance team won the State 3-A high kick competition.
The five teams they were competing against refused to take their places during the awards ceremony.
Those teams alleged that Faribault stole their routine from a dance team in Utah.
From the start, Faribault coach Lois Krinke has denied plagiarizing the routine.
"There may have been four counts here or there that had similar routines, but it was not plagiarized," Krinke said in February.
The Minnesota State High School League agreed, and investigations began at the five schools surrounding the incident.
Krinke said so far two of the schools have sent apologies, but she believes only one is sincere.
"The only apology I received that I felt was a little bit on the sincere side was the Chaska dance team," Krinke said.
Krinke said the Chaska girls each signed a note of apology and sent it to her girls.
But she said an apology sent by Lakeville South didn't seem authentic.
The message, addressed to her dance team, recognized that South's actions detracted from the joy and excitement Faribault should have been experiencing.
It offers a congratulations, acknowledges Faribault has talented dancers and wishes the team well in the future.
Krinke says she received the message in an email.
"It was a note of apology and then somebody typed all the coaches names," Krinke said. "To me, as I said, that's not an acceptable apology. A canned note that somebody wrote and put everybody's names on it, you know."
Krinke said she'd rather have the other coaches call her directly and talk through their issues.
In an email to WCCO, Lakeville South said that written reprimands were also given to all employees who were involved in the award ceremony incident.
Investigations are still on-going at some of these schools and the high school league will review them.