The American Indian Parent Advisory Committee (AIPAC) is one of three parent committees which advises the Duluth school district how best to spend federal, state, and tribal funds earmarked for the needs of Native American students. The Johnson O’Malley Committee (JOM) and Title VI Committee are the other two.
On Dec. 1, 2025, the Monitor published an article entitled, “Grievance hearing exposes dysfunction on American Indian Parent Advisory Committee.” We reported on a grievance AIPAC committee member Teague Goodsky had filed against fellow committee member Lydia Shinkle.
After an AIPAC meeting held on Nov. 6, 2025, Ms. Goodsky overheard Ms. Shinkle tell a Duluth News Tribune reporter that she felt disrespected during the meeting. Because Shinkle made this comment, Goodsky believed she should be censured and possibly removed from the committee for “spreading harmful rumors and misinformation.” Goodsky asserts no one disrespected Shinkle at the meeting.
The Monitor posted a link to the article on Facebook with the caption, “Something needs to be done.” We took the position that filing a grievance for this single comment (which was never reported by the DNT reporter) was foolish, petty, and worse: It was a constitutional violation intended to punish free speech. Whether or not one feels disrespected is a subjective opinion; everyone has the right to express how they feel.
We had never heard of committee members filing grievances against fellow committee members. Instead of establishing a formal policy to address the situation, AIPAC co-chairs Amber Greensky and Amber Lightfeather invented a new grievance process as they processed Goodsky’s complaint. The co-chairs’ arbitrary and non-transparent steps observed prior to and during the hearing could have easily been abused.
Teague Goodsky called Monitor publisher John Ramos on Jan. 5, 2026, to register her complaint about our article. During the 20-minute conversation, Ramos explained why he had written the things he had—and why he had focused particularly on the grievance hearing. He told Goodsky that censuring someone merely for expressing they felt disrespected was inappropriate, and the conversation ended (Ramos felt) amicably.
In addition to being a member of AIPAC, Goodsky chairs the Title VI Committee. On Jan. 6, Goodsky emailed Ramos, inviting him to attend meetings of the Title VI Committee. She also told Ramos that she had reported him to the school district administration, because she felt his article about the grievance hearing would possibly “draw in random people to harass us.” She also accused Ramos of “bullying.” She said that, because Ramos had captioned his article on Facebook with the comment, “Something needs to be done” (in reference to the dysfunction he reported), readers might see it as a call to violent action against AIPAC.
Goodsky also provided Ramos with an extensive list of ground rules for him to follow while attending her committee meetings.
Boozhoo, John Ramos. I forgot to follow up with you after our phone conversation yesterday like I said I would. My apologies. The conversation left me sort of irritated. Again, I feel that you are being fed misinformation and are chasing the wrong story. But it was clear to me that you were not willing to change your opinion on that, so it’s moot to me.
You are welcome to attend Title VI meetings as well as AIPAC. I sent an invite to this email along with the Committee members asking them to pick a time and date next week to meet. If we are not able to find a physical space, we’ll probably meet virtually.
I want to let you know that if you start interviewing our Committee members and trying to put them on the spot with obviously loaded questions as you have been doing, I will address you directly and ask you to leave.
Personally, I would like you to attend, and I would like your input on how we can have better processes and policies on our Committee, but if you hound these Indian parents individually and try to make them look bad, or put a deliberately negative spotlight on them as individuals in this community, I take serious issue with that, because I consider it bullying. I’m all for having accountability for politicians and people in power, but this is a parent committee trying to advocate for their children. We are an advisory committee with no control over the budgets and policies of the District, and the relationship with the District has been more or less fraught with tension. We do not want to have to deal with any racism or harassment in our open public meetings, and if the Duluth Monitor starts drawing in random people who harass us I will hold you responsible for that. After all, you posted the article you wrote about our AIPAC with the comment “Something must be done.” This is language that often incites violence, particularly in the current political climate.
I’ve brought this forward to administration and let them know my concerns. Please attend our meetings if you can, hold accountability as you feel you must. But do not make these parents feel uncomfortable when they are attending these meetings. I expect the journalism that comes forth to have integrity. Miigwech.
~Teague
To be clear, at this point Ramos had written exactly one article about AIPAC. He had reported on his communications with exactly two committee members—AIPAC Co-chair Amber Greensky and member Tim Pohl—both of whom willingly communicated with him. He had attended exactly one AIPAC meeting (in addition to the grievance hearing), where he interacted casually with a few parents and school district employees before the meeting. Given this brief, benign record, it is unclear which “obviously loaded questions” Teague Goodsky was accusing him of asking, or why she thought he wanted to “hound” anyone.
It seems likely that Goodsky, just as with her grievance against Lydia Shinkle, was trying to punish the Monitor for highlighting AIPAC’s shortcomings. Goodsky reported us to school authorities because she disagreed with what we wrote. This is an authoritarian impulse, designed to squelch criticism and smear opponents.
Ramos emailed Goodsky back:
Just to be clear: You are forbidding me from interviewing members of the Title VI Committee?
Goodsky responded:
Not what I said. You can interview committee members as much as you like, but if you’re publicly making parents uncomfortable with inappropriate lines of questioning and leading statements, then I will ask that you leave. The committees are to provide for the maximum participation of Native parents to give their voices to the District. If your presence interferes with that process, or you are hounding or harassing individual members to concoct a narrative, that’s an issue.
Rude comments like, “You guys looked really stupid up there” and then proceeding with a line of questioning about other people’s intentions is not okay. Putting words into people’s mouths, like you’ve just tried doing to me, is not okay. Attend, observe, interview. But be respectful and be professional. Miigwech.
The Monitor has never said, “You guys looked really stupid up there,” nor are we aware of the “inappropriate lines of questioning” and “leading statements” to which Ms. Goodsky is referring. As for making people “uncomfortable,” any questions can do that, no matter how mild they may be.
Essentially, Ms. Goodsky is attempting to establish rules which allow her to eject us from her meetings for any possible reason whatsoever—another example of the authoritarian impulse.
We emailed Ms. Goodsky back, requesting a copy of the complaint she had filed with the district. We also left her a voicemail, asking for clarification on when Ramos had made the statements referenced in her email. We also left a voicemail for Duluth Assistant Superintendent Anthony Bonds, asking him to confirm Goodsky had filed a complaint and requesting a copy of it.
As of publication, we have received no response.
We agree that respect and professionalism are important. Given Ms. Goodsky’s wildly inaccurate portrayals of our actions in her email, we can only imagine the slanders she may be spreading behind closed doors.
Because Ms. Goodsky cannot be trusted to represent our interactions honestly, we present the recording in full here of the single conversation we have had with Ms. Goodsky to date.
