Posted: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:50 am

Before I start, full disclosure time: I know Shelly Prieve. She lives down the street from me, right across the street from the police chief. A few months after I moved in I was sitting on my driveway playing with my son and she walked down to introduce herself. Her kids and my son have played together often. Her youngest son was at my boy's birthday party this year. I like Shelly Prieve.

Which makes what's going on now all the more difficult for me personally but still leaves me believing that what we as a newspaper did professionally was right.

Today we ran a story about the fact that the school district is and the Faribault Police has investigated Prieve for allegations that she had "inappropriate communication" with students. Prieve has denied any inappropriate behavior in a brief conversation with our reporter, but she has declined to talk to police and declined to talk with us further to explain her side to the allegations. At the center of those allegations are text messages she reportedly sent to a few students. Beyond that, one student makes the allegation to police that Prieve tried to "force him into something" and that he told her he "had other priorities to go with." You can download and read all the documents that formed the foundation of our story here: