Ten suspended at Coon Rapids High School

COON RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) — Ten students at Coon Rapids High School have been suspended after heated exchanges on Facebook escalated into a shouting match on a stairway earlier this week.

District spokesman Brett Johnson tells the Star Tribune (http://bit.ly/sWCGw1 ) the students are serving three to 10-day suspensions, the length depending on their involvement and their disciplinary history.

Anoka-Hennepin School District officials say all the suspended students were engaged in name calling and threats, so there were no clear-cut perpetrators and victims.

The district is facing a federal investigation and a lawsuit over allegations that it hasn’t done enough to protect homosexual students from harassment, but Coon Rapids Principal Annette Ziegler says none of the Facebook exchanges were related to sexual orientation.

Officials say the Facebook exchanges warranted disciplinary action, but didn’t require police involvement.

The incident was Tuesday.