Earlier this year, while a high school choir teacher was fighting to get his old job back, his friend mailed two lewd packages to the St. Anthony-New Brighton superintendent, according to a criminal complaint filed last month in Hennepin County District Court.
The first package, containing a large cardboard penis, was delivered to Superintendent Renee Corneille’s office on Feb. 8. A second package arriving March 2 held a bag of small cardboard penises and a vulgar note telling Corneille to “choke on” the contents.
Corneille “became concerned for the safety of the children and staff” and contacted police, according to the complaint.
A month later, while police were working to identify the sender, Corneille suggested a possible suspect: Michael Shafer, the choir teacher who Corneille had fired in 2020 but was reinstated by an arbitrator, according to the complaint.
At the time the packages were sent, Shafer was awaiting a judge’s ruling over whether the district could reassign him at his same rate of pay or had to return him to the music room. He lost that case on March 15 and remains on “special assignment.”
The company that sent the packages refused to cooperate with St. Anthony police. Its website promises “Every order is 100% anonymous! We have never and will never give out any order info.”
However, an investigator learned the company uses a third-party shipper, Shopify, which did comply with a search warrant. In late April, Shopify told police the customer who had the packages sent was Alicia Ann Little, a 30-year-old Minneapolis woman who is Facebook friends with Shafer.
Little admitted to police that she sent the packages, saying at first that she saw Corneille on the news and was mad at her for the way she treats her employees, according to the complaint. She later acknowledged she was upset about Shafer’s treatment in particular and that she had also sent Shafer a package from the same company in February.
Little “began to cry when she said Mr. Shafer was not allowed to teach children in the school. She shared genuine care for Mr. Shafer. She wanted it known that she did not mean to cause the alarm and fear to (Corneille) by sending her those packages,” the complaint states.
Police looked into Shafer’s possible involvement in sending the packages but found “no direct nexus.”
Hennepin County prosecutors charged Little by summons with one gross misdemeanor count of harassment. She is due in court July 26.
Little’s lawyer, Phil Villaume, said Friday that “she denies any misconduct.” He confirmed Little and Shafer are friends.
TEACHER VS SUPERINTENDENT
Villaume also represented Shafer in his fight with the school district, which began with a 2020 petition that St. Anthony Village High School students circulated online alleging mistreatment by school employees.
The school district suspended Shafer, investigated the allegations and moved to fire him in February 2021.
An arbitrator in August reduced his punishment to a seven-day, unpaid suspension, writing that Shafer had done “no intentional harm” to students. Shafer had a record of angry, aggressive behavior with students, the arbitrator found, but claims of sexual misconduct amounted to unfounded “hearsay.”
Still, Corneille wouldn’t let Shafer teach choir again, instead reassigning him to other duties. A judge in March confirmed the district had the authority to do that.
Villaume said Shafer has been treated poorly by the district.
“We prevailed in the (arbitration) proceedings, and it’s just an unfortunate situation that we tried to get him back in the choir and we weren’t successful,” he said.
Asked about the criminal charge, Corneille released the following statement Friday:
“As superintendent, my role is to ensure that our students are surrounded by the best teachers and staff who show love, care and respect to every child. While doing my job, I was criminally sexually harassed by an individual who disagreed with the actions our district is taking to make sure our classrooms are safe, secure and free of individuals who demonstrate an inability to respectfully interact with our students. I have been personally victimized, and yet, I stand firm in my commitment to ensure safe and caring learning environments for each of our students so that they have the capacity to thrive in our world.”