PLHS students respond to Crudele’s presentation
on values with tears & hugs

By Claire Robling/Staff Writer

John Crudele said goodbye to some of his new friends in Prior Lake following the evening awards program and his presentation at Hidden Oaks Middle School on April 14. Crudele delivered five talks during his one-day visit and left a lasting impression on many of the people who heard his talks about values.

For hundreds of students at Prior Lake High School, last week’s early morning talk by John Crudele turned into a healing service for wounded feelings.

Following a presentation in which the nationally-acclaimed motivational speaker emphasized the community’s values of courage, education, family, honesty, human worth and dignity, respect and responsibilty, Crudele invited students to come forward and share some of their feelings, stories and values with the other students.

There was a long pause, but then a sen­ior took the microphone and gave an emotional account about how her father’s alcoholism had adversely affected the lives of the members of her family. When she finished, she was supported by loud applause and hugs from fellow students.

As students sat attentively, other students came forward and shared their stores of personal tragedies and successes.

At the end, Jeff Borchardt came to the microphone. Borchardt, 16, had been driving a vehicle that rolled over the previous weekend, resulting in a serious spinal cord injury that may cause permanent paralysis for Adam McCord, a friend and a PLHS sophomore.

Borchardt tearfully told the assembled students that his life had turned into a nightmare, along with Adam’s, because of what had happened. He apologized to the students for his role in the accident, saying he understood if everyone hated him.

But instead of showing disdain, the students literally poured out of their seats to support. They hugged him and each other as tears poured down their cheeks.

“At that moment, I really felt the unity and love that this school has and how much we really do care about each other,” an 11th grade student wrote after the program.

Another student wrote that following the presentation, some of her friends who had been fighting “for the longest time, and I have been in the middle of,” apologized to each other. “And another friend finally could cry and know that she did have friends to lean on,” she continued.

Christie Thorsen reported that there was a “sense of togetherness. I turned to look at my friend and she was crying and asked me for a hug. She grabbed me and sobbed, saying, “I’m glad that I met you.”

Another student wrote on Friday, “Yesterday I felt many feelings. To start out I felt happy, then sad, then proud. But the best thing I felt was unity. Out of the six years I’ve attended Prior Lake schools, I’ve always felt everyone separated themselves from one another, didn’t want anyone to see them cry or do what is right and help people out. They always wanted to seem strong and bad.”

A ninth grader stated: “I wish that this school would pull together on other occasions like we all did today. I thought it was great how everyone was sharing their feel­ings and expressing how they felt about all the situations.”

Junior Jennifer Bergstrom said she per­sonally benefited from Crudele’s visit and believes her classmates did too.
“Some of the lessons learned may be forgotten next week, or even tomorrow, but it was very moving to see the way our school can pull together. The support was astonishing. The support of friends and family is something I value very much. The support of this community is something I will miss when I move next year. However, I will forever have in my heart the memory of Prior Lake High at its best. The memory of tear-streaked strangers, clinging to each other in support and acceptance—I will always cherish and value that memory (and others) and the lifelong friends I have made at PLHS.”

One 11th grade student expressed these thoughts: “I wish all of Prior Lake could have heard Mr. Crudele’s presentation.

They you all could have come together with us and cried and have had one goal in common—to make things better around our town. Things haven’t been going real great around here, and our ‘bad luck’ isn’t going to end if we ignore it. Let’s face reality and make things better.”

Dave Nyhus wrote: “(Crudele) told us what is right and wrong, and that we don’t have to use drugs and alcohol to have a good time, or just plain fit in. His presentation made an enormous amount of sense...Having John Crudele at PLHS, for me, was the best thing that’s happened here in a very long time.”

Some students said the unity and empathy expressed during the assembly was wonderful, but they expressed doubts that it would make any difference in the long run.

Amy Sevik said she heard those com­ments expressed frequently, and she said they are correct “if we take that negative attitude about it. It’s going to require an individual effort from everyone to keep from reverting back to the ‘I don’t care’ frame of mind our school was in. The best thing we can do is to follow the theme of Values Week: ‘Treat others as you want to be treated.’ Being respectful of each other is the first step to heal our school’s pain.”