The chair of a Minnesota school board apologized after lashing out at Alpha News over a report on a planned “prayer room” at Park Center High School and “footwash” at Osseo High School.
Earlier this month, Alpha News received blueprints for renovations that are occurring at the two high schools. Blueprints for Park Center showed a planned “prayer room” at the school, while blueprints for Osseo showed plans for a “footwash.”
Prayer rooms are used by Muslims as they observe daily prayers. Meanwhile, foot-washing is a prerequisite for Muslims before they pray. Park Center and Osseo are a part of Osseo Area Schools in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis.
🚨NEW: Osseo Schools has confirmed to @AlphaNews that its remodel project at Park Center Senior High includes a prayer room and that foot-washing stations are being added to Osseo Senior High School.
The district, located in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, says the… pic.twitter.com/3IAwbMFNCl
— Liz Collin (@lizcollin) April 20, 2026
After Alpha News’ reporting on those blueprints went viral, the school board chair of Osseo Area Schools took to social media to criticize Alpha News in several posts.
“I might be done being a ‘Republican’ today,” Chair Tanya Prince wrote. “Neither side of the aisle has any integrity in Minnesota. I am glad that as a non-partisan leader, I don’t have to bend to the narratives meant to play to the lowest level of bias, fear, and division.”
Prince, whose school board seat is on the ballot this year, went on to say that “Alpha News is a pile of garbage that no thoughtful person should take at face value,” and said Alpha News’ reporting on the blueprints was “atrocious false reporting.”
In another post, she said: “We don’t have a Muslim prayer room. We don’t have dedicated foot washing stations. We have a multipurpose room that some students use for when they are fasting during Ramadan and other students use for any other purposes that a room is generally used for – clubs, meeting, etc. We have two low sinks in a locker room.”
“This was provided to Alpha News, and [they] simply decided to say we ‘confirmed it,’” added the school board chair.
Despite her claims, the blueprints were clearly marked “prayer room” and “footwash.”
When Alpha News contacted the school district about both amenities, the district confirmed that “there are two phy-ed locker rooms with lower sinks that could be used for footwashing.”
“These were included in update plans after hearing from user groups on student needs,” the district said.
Regarding the prayer room, the district said the construction plans include a “multipurpose space” that “could be used for prayer, or other student or staff multipurpose needs.”
The district later told two concerned parents that the “prayer room” was “mislabeled in construction documents.” It never told Alpha News that the blueprints were mislabeled.
Prince has since deleted her original post and apologized for her “harsh personal words.”
“I spoke with Liz Collins [sic] of Alpha News today regarding my personal comments on the recent reporting on Osseo. I emphasized that truth and integrity is important to me and apologized for harsh personal words that were never meant to be a public criticism but personal comments regarding personal frustration. I remain proud of serving, my board, and my district leadership,” she wrote on Facebook last week.
Despite Prince’s apology, her fiance, Jack Tomczak, has continued to attack Alpha News and claimed to know the identity of the person he believes provided Alpha News with the blueprints, but he declined to name that person “for the time being.”
Specifically, Tomczak stated on his radio show on The Patriot, which is owned by Salem Media Group: “I’m not going to give the name of the person I believe to be the tipster but everything lines up. But she has not chosen to be a public person so for the time being, I don’t want to ruin her life.”
He then went on to state that “tens of thousands of other people think that the Osseo school district is installing a Muslim prayer room because some nutball saw what she wanted to see in the blueprint. That’s not good, that’s not right. That’s not journalism.”
In journalism, “you have to just say true things, and that wasn’t done here. I’m not taking calls on this,” Tomczak added.
Tomczak has also made false statements about Alpha News on social media, including a comment on Facebook where he claimed that Alpha News reporter Liz Collin “doctored a photo in the Osseo prayer room story.”
“Mr. Tomczak’s obsession has now crossed the line into actionable defamation. Neither Ms. Collin nor Alpha News ever ‘doctored a photo,’ and Mr. Tomczak knows this,” attorney Chris Madel wrote in a letter to The Patriot this week.
In a separate letter to Tomczak himself, Madel noted that Tomczak has not provided Alpha News or Collin “with any facts that discredit Ms. Collin’s reporting in any way.”
“If journalists were forced to retract stories because someone responded with, ‘Gee, someone mislabeled that,’ or ‘By golly, I said that wrong,’ nothing would be reported from the right or left’s politicians,” Madel wrote.
“Since the publication of the article, you have published dozens of internet postings and gone on your pro bono radio show and ranted about this article. You have also stated that Ms. Collin ‘lied’ and is ‘not credible,’” Madel continued. “It is truly enlightening that someone so quick to declare a journalist ‘not credible’ has somehow been unable to produce a single fact showing the story itself is actually false; you instead point to the District’s after-the-fact ‘the contractor got it wrong’ story to induce Alpha News to delete it. That’s just foolish. And the foolhardy nature of your attacks is revealed by your recent, numerous ad hominem attacks on Ms. Collin.”
Madel then noted that Tomczak’s behavior toward Collin “seems to fit a pattern.” For instance, in 2020, Tomczak’s ex-wife obtained a harassment restraining order against him as she claimed he has a “well-established pattern of harassing and stalking individuals he believes to have wronged him.”
“He also ‘joked’ if I ever left him it would be ‘murder suicide,’” she alleged. “I strongly believe Mr. Tomczak will continue harassing me, stalking me, and doing whatever he possibly can to completely destroy me. He has a very long history and well-established pattern of harassing individuals he perceives to have wronged him by repeatedly sending unwanted and vicious emails, texts, and other messages; recording phone calls; surreptitiously videotaping individuals; and appearing unannounced at an individual’s places of work. I also believe it will continue because he has been harassing and stalking me for the last two years, despite repeated warnings and requests to stop.”
Tomczak denied the allegations made against him at the time. Tomczak responded to Madel’s letter by inviting him on his show.
“Thank you, but no, I’ve had more than my fair share of crazy in the past year,” Madel replied.
This article was updated with Tomczak’s response to Madel’s letter.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” and “Minnesota v We the People.”
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