Mary Lynn Donaldson
Introduction
Mary Lynn Donaldson is a 67-year-old woman from Robbinsdale, Minnesota, who worked as a school principal. On October 19, 2026, she was charged in Hennepin County Court with two felony counts — first-degree and third-degree criminal sexual conduct — after a former student, now an adult man, reported that she had sexually abused him over a period of years beginning when he was a teenager living in her home.
The case drew immediate regional news coverage because of the relationship at its center: prosecutors say Donaldson abused a student while she held authority over him at school, and that the alleged abuse continued long after he came to live under her roof.
Background Information
According to the criminal complaint, the man moved into Donaldson’s home when he was in his early teens while attending the school where Donaldson worked. Law enforcement has identified that school as Concordia Creative Learning Academy, which is no longer open.
The investigation confirmed the student attended the school where Donaldson worked from 2008 to 2012. A current school employee, identified in court documents as Witness A, confirmed that the student lived with Donaldson and described him as her “favorite student” — the same detail a school employee separately reported to detectives.
Public details about Donaldson’s career remain limited. Court records make it unclear which school she was principal of at the time of the alleged misconduct, and the complaint indicates she later moved to Wisconsin.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The allegations against Donaldson are laid out in a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County Court on October 19, 2026. According to the complaint, the man told investigators the abuse began when he was around 14 or 15 years old and continued until he was about 20. He reported that the first encounter took place at Donaldson’s home in Robbinsdale, where he had moved as a young teen, and that sex acts then occurred numerous times a week, and sometimes more often.
In a follow-up interview with detectives, the man described numerous specific assaults, telling investigators that intercourse happened about five times a week and that oral sex occurred more often. He also said Donaldson bribed him not to report the abuse or tell anyone about it.
The encounters became less frequent during his 11th- and 12th-grade years, the complaint states, because Donaldson moved to Wisconsin. Even then, according to the complaint, she continued traveling back to Minnesota to engage in sex acts with him.
The two charges cover different periods of the man’s adolescence: one count covers alleged conduct when the student was 13 to 15 years old, and the second covers conduct when he was 16 and 17. According to court documents, the charged incidents happened in January 2021 and 2023. Prosecutors say Donaldson abused the student while she held authority over him at school.
Robbinsdale police received the man’s report on December 26, 2025. Charges were not filed until October 19, 2026 — roughly ten months later.
Public Reaction and Consequences
News of the charges broke on October 19, 2026, when KSTP and FOX 9 both reported the case based on the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County Court. Because the charges are so recent, public reaction beyond that news coverage has not been documented in the available reporting.
The immediate consequence for Donaldson is legal: she faces two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct, each a serious accusation. The case also revisits a school that no longer exists — Concordia Creative Learning Academy — and raises questions about how a student came to live in a principal’s home, a living arrangement confirmed by a current school employee cited in the complaint.
Court records included with the complaint do not list Donaldson’s response to the allegations, so no account from her side of the events appears in the public record as of the initial reporting.
Current Status
Donaldson is not currently in custody. She has been issued a summons to appear in court, and her first court appearance is scheduled for November 9, 2026. If she fails to appear, a warrant for her arrest can be issued.
No trial date or additional hearings appear in the available sources, and court records do not yet list Donaldson’s response to the allegations.
Donaldson has been charged but not convicted. Like any criminal defendant, she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, and every allegation described on this page remains an accusation that prosecutors must prove.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Donaldson is identified in charging documents and news reports as a former principal, and the school at the center of the case, Concordia Creative Learning Academy, is no longer open. Now 67, she previously lived in Robbinsdale and, per the complaint, later moved to Wisconsin. She is expected to answer the charges in a Minnesota courtroom beginning in November 2026.
The allegations have attached Donaldson’s name to an unusually grave accusation in Minnesota school communities: that a principal exploited her authority over a student and, later, her own household to carry out years of alleged abuse, kept quiet — according to the complaint — through bribes paid to the student. Whatever the legal outcome, the school she is publicly tied to has closed, and the felony case now defines the public record of her career in education.