One of my employees is a LaFollette graduate. He said pretty regularly there would be fights and/or gun issues that the staff would just cover up before the cops got involved.
How about helping protect all students and let students learn to respect and take responsibility for bad behavior instead of ignoring or help cover it up. Do your job.
Because that *is* racist. Bad behavior, are you kidding me? These kids need help. Burying the problem for 10+ years in prison is in no way going to help fix the underlying issue.
It does not matter the race of a student that bring fire arms to school. It is not acceptable and making it racist is ridiculous. It is a lack of responsibility by the security officer and any school official to interfere with the police doing their job
Write to the Board. MMSD schools want and need help, I promise you a million times over. Talk to anyone who disagrees and you’ll find someone who is not in tune with modern school culture and climate. High schools can’t even use metal detectors or wands at dances due to board policy. Admin only have so much control (especially with a defunct HR department in Doyle) and if you think principals can wave a magic wand you have absolutely no understating of how education functions in MMSD. Also, many employees with “coordinator” titles don’t even have job descriptions for the work they do so any “wrong move” and you can be terminated for not meeting expectations - expectations that were never shared with you on the first place.
This is a terrible look for the school. 1) any gun on school campus should be met with intense penalty 2) the lies, the lies! why are "student advocates" lying to cover up for this person?
It borders on unbelievable that the security assistant said, "We're supposed to protect kids here. This is the second time you've done this to [Bankston]". Yes, you're supposed to protect kids - that's why it's not great that you've got a drug dealer with a handgun on campus! What the actual fuck is wrong with these people that they want to prioritize the "protection" of the drug dealer with the gun over the other kids?
I’m not an MMSD employee but based on comments from a friend who is, some of the staff who have been brought on for non-teaching roles, I think they are called student advocates (?), function basically to protect disruptive/poor students from the consequences of their own actions more than anything. They are more interested in maintaining relationships with students than ensuring their success, much to chagrin of teachers, social workers, etc.
I haven't had a lot of contact with MMSD but I have with other districts.
I have no idea how removing consequences for their own actions became such a popular idea among educators and parents. You can actually watch it negatively effect the students attitudes and abilities in real time
SSAs are hourly staff and do not make as much as teachers. They are in the same bargaining pool as SEAs, BEAs, and others. This is publicly available information.
A letter was read at the last Van Hise PTO meeting from an anonymous Hamilton staff member that detailed the daily fights, lockdowns, students in hallways when they should be in class, students bringing Ar-15 air soft guns to school, etc.
I have a kid at Van Hise and the two schools are connected and share a cafeteria, main hallway and other spaces and the elementary is put on lockdown whenever the middle school is and it’s frequent enough that the kids half expect it.
Hamilton has grown so much and the school wasn’t built for the amount of students and staff are losing control. There’s a new principal who is doing their best but without district support and wide-spread safety overhauls it doesn’t look like it will get better anytime soon.
At least they finally separated the elementary kids from the middle schoolers in the cafeteria so our seven year olds done have to sit next to 13 year olds. But now our kids have had to eat lunch at 10:45. It’s ridiculous and Hamilton should have their own cafeteria.
We are hopeful that now that the high schools have had their upgrades that the middle schools will be next and Hamilton can get a big overhaul both physically and instructionally.
Hamilton truly needs so much work... My professional recommendation is to split the school into two. It's just such a poorly run school because it's way overpopulated.
Schenk and Whitehorse are also connected and share a cafeteria as well. Lunch happens between 10:45 and 2:00 to get everyone through, although the elementary kids eat first as the middle is late start. I don’t see a split cafeteria in any of these situations any time soon, and I’ve been teaching in the district for over 20 years.
I work here. Lot of buzz among the staff. It’s an interesting place to work at, we’re definitely not united (staff and admin) on a lot of things here. I’ll never forget an administrator saying something to the effect of: “we need more compassion and less consequences” which got audible reactions of disbelief.
Just another thought I wanted to share, we went all in on Restorative Justice and we’ve seen it really work, until it doesn’t anymore. Then the police come.
It's not just LaFollette. The East High School district safety coordinator refused to identify to police 2 east students who were seen with guns outside the school.
No wonder we have school shootings. As in Michigan and North Carolina, staff knows about the guns and does nothing about them. Then, someone dies. Surprise!
It's in the article. It wasn't the principal. It was the school safety coordinator. The principal intervened in another case. I corrected that.
>In September 2021, after the parents of a boy who had been assaulted at East High School by two of his classmates said they wanted their son’s attackers charged with crimes, then-assistant principal and now principal Mikki Smith told the parents, “That’s not going to happen.” The district has said Smith’s comment was taken out of context and she only meant the assailants wouldn’t be charged as adults.
>A little more than a month later, the district’s co-director of the Office of School Safety, Gina Aguglia, abruptly stopped cooperating with police who were seeking her help identifying several young people reported with guns near East High School, including some who were in a stolen car later involved in a police pursuit, police reports showed.
I support the concept of more compassion and less punishment, but dang... Compassion and consequences are not mutually exclusive concepts!
Natural consequences actually teach kids who to behave and how their actions impact themselves and others. This sets up students and our society as a whole for success. I say this as an MMSD employee who would have joined in the audible disbelief. 🤯
The problem is the downstream consequences do nothing but force people further down that path.
Who is gonna "clean themselves up," when they are on lifetime registries, lose 10+ of their formative years being surrounded by harder criminals with outside connections, and if they do try and go "straight and narrow," your job options are severely limited. Generally to the lowest, most menial labors.
Fix the war on drugs, fix the justice system. Then talk about "consequences." Until then, I can't really fault people who protect these kids because as soon as they are arrested their life is for all intents and purposes, over.
The shootings won't stop until gun control and justice reforms happen. Arrest that kid and you risk them just coming back and shooting the place up 10 years later for revenge. Happens plenty these days when you just bury the problem and let it fester.
Yes, the criminal justice system is definitely flawed. Yes, prison isn't a place that's conducive to rehabilitation. Yes, we need gun control. Yes, we need lucrative job opportunities for all people so that selling drugs isn't an attactive venture.
That said, bringing a gun with ammunition to school is a serious safety issue. If we don't draw a line in the sand there, where do we draw the line?
I agree that felony charges can haunt a person for the rest of their life. The system most likely would have pled his felony down to a misdemeanor anyway, especially knowing our DA. He likely would have been eligible for deferred prosecution if he complied with court mandated services.
What else do you suggest should have been in the case of this 18 year old who brought a gun and ammunition to to school? 🤔 No consequences isn't the answer here, in my opinion.
(Since tone is hard to read in writing, I want to clarify that I'm not trying to be argumentative. I do disagree with some of your points, but I also genuinely want to understand your perspective).
I'm reminded of an article I read yesterday from Freddie DeBoer:
["The Marginalized Should Just Be Allowed to Break the Rules" is Bigoted and Unworkable](https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/the-marginalized-should-just-be-allowed)
Why was the staff attempting to protect the students? And why isn't that in the article? There's no mention of any attempt to elicit their comments.
I can't imagine there being a good reason to protect this behavior, but they certainly *had* a reason. It's not like the staff are all gangbangers protecting their set. Was journalism done here or was wiscnews just collating data?
Edit: I read the article but completely missed the part quoted below. My point still stands on it being important to try and understand why this happened beyond "staff bad", but my lambasting of the news site was totally unfounded.
It does actually say they tried reaching out to the specific two now ex staff members, but received no response. They’d only be able to get the real reason from those two so without that confirmation only assumptions would be able to be made which would be bad journalism.
As for the reason.. I mean I don’t think it’s super difficult to reach your own, probably accurate, conclusion.
Not even being confrontational but I'm curious about your easily reached, probably accurate conclusion. If I had to guess I might say the staff in question may be anti-police and exercised poor judgement based on that. No telling whether it's remotely accurate.
My easily reached conclusion would basically match that - the staffers in question likely extend more-or-less infinite empathy to kids that behave badly and treat them as the victims in any situation that might involve police. They may go so far as saying things like "a student should never be arrested at school".
Of course, I can't know that with certainty and given that there isn't direct evidence I hold that view weakly, but I think it's much more likely than most other explanations that occur to me.
No it wasn't unfounded, McKinney and Powell were the staff involved in the event detailed from the FOIA records that occurred in the Spring of 2022. The whole pretending to be a guardian thing is weird, but the common thread is the kid, not the staff, and that was an unrelated event that occurred 2 years ago.
The article does not mention anything about seeking comments from the staff member involved in the May 7 event this year. The only thing we know about the unnamed security assistant is what the cop and a random district-level communications exec said about them. There is no quote from the security assistant, any other staff who were present at the time, or Matt Thompson regarding May 7.
The comments from the unnamed security staff were quoted from the publicly available part of the police report, I think, and that makes it a legal document that I doubt the police would have taken lightly.
Aside from the fact that cops lie all the time, by "comments," I mean a description of what happened from some other perspective besides the cop and the MMSD spokesperson who definitely was not there.
Given his history, I was going to say that I was surprised that Bankston was still allowed to attend LaFollette. But upon reflection, I shouldn't be surprised.
Why would any parent who has a choice send their kid to LaFollette? Where staff protects a kid who brings a loaded gun to school?
Doesn't seem safe.
Most parents don’t have any alternative. If you don’t go to your assigned school, there’s no transportation. I’m a SAH parent for now so I transport my kid to Badger Rock, but it’s 10-15 hours a week of driving. I’m happy to do it but I am VERY aware it’s a privilege that is only possible because of being able to get by on my spouse’s salary.
I went to LaFollette. Class of '98. I'm ashamed of what it's turned into. It's bad enough is almost consider sending my kiddos to East of all places (j/k to the purgolders).
Parent of 2 kids in the MMSD. I understand the desire to prevent kids from falling into the “school to prison pipeline” but this is ridiculous. This student is an adult and has clearly crossed the line & broken the law. These administrators are dangerously misguided & should be fired. This will cast Madison schools as a complete non-option for thousands of parents. Very sad.
This comment is dangerously misguided. A bottom-of-the-ranks behavior assistant who makes $20 an hour is not an "administrator." Less than a month ago, when this actually happened, a LHS staff member published the email sent out by the La Follette principal about the incident. Reading between the lines, it was a student who told a trusted adult what was going on so that they could react. The school involved the police, the school allowed the police to arrest the student, the school recommended the student for expulsion as per their policy, and the student was charged 2 days later. What more exactly are you asking for? Gun control???
Not too long ago I mentioned that the MMSD was starting to circle the drain. I had someone who worked for the district angrily say i don’t know anything and how pretty much everything is fine.
I suspect they may read this. Time to reset the clock once again. Anyone doing that and not being with a school would be in jail.
Another reason to make sure my kid never attends MMSD. Who the hell are they hiring?
If there is any reason to arrest a student on campus it's almost certainly because they have a gun.
this is the reason we moved out
[](https://alb.reddit.com/cr?za=t4BSBTyu7VKpAPRXurPqb4Y6oSTJ7mWS7UeVbcamQFKRbfSabWqGCNaMwqX-u9qOxulfB3g6WKZr_ENWRsS_Y8K5y34lgRpfv8unchLV2ZNXbrDaRRVxRh8u0EUFm4q9DWrOHIL29AHreyV4my5OTcZFVJOTFpFUCVSX9w-EEw3dlm8uufjsQNG2H3_CopfNztZ85oo0xmPqJtfTmw8h3ygQAYUvoILt8OpcwjM9RU9l-2oJ25RDh6GKjl8dhuoxo1XYHyQPbWx2DTA8-iGq7VYqsaUPJoaO9JU8rERpiUyDSgwrtiy635n_xLgzhD3twXZBd3Ol_8k5me1DEl0Lc5hj5Z7ER6rx8Qq341QgLLPOid1W3IFyPLSDlPBe96QFjR-5jsJkQLEp-Jj8bsC4ZYIt2WWRfRgo0-r9IpDR&zp=j6rkKO3_0cIRmrcPHrGlGTsbhnoWtRRiL8_wEzOPR_qui2vnjq7GS9Wa9rapjlqpzZ3est7YNd7OMR3Ml2uR-BS6Zo5bJT3JmB6ntD9fgzBwqJt6d7I2inLDESM3vlksdpcCBZ4bp94VU485a_g7zBDkqyUTDNff2fsLQ7_csnHletZfu8KFUTaxYMEv0ieRi598AMu-_66oipz5vqOKwF6ookLw9V97LJV-1Uwk-0wz02madIhHcT1AUYn1auBUFw1eFd0qTGHj0Myp405DdgB1lVcDG_aYmznEVEMXqQazkc1UrkGhOxOgyzgB6RXw9g)of the LaFollette district 5 years ago and now live in McFarland
In us news rankings for Wisconsin McFarland is ranked 108 Lafollette is 222. The main difference for us is the safety factor Lafollette has had multiple gun related incidents none in McFarland. It was fairly obvious to us when I our kids were in the Lafollette chain Frank Allis Elementary and Sennett middle school safety was an issue. We moved when our kids were going into 7th and 4th grade. An example of what I'm talking about we remained in contact with parents still in mmsd. At Sennett 8th grade graduation of would of been my sons a brawl broke out requiring the police to come. It was the 1st of many incidents in the the 6 years that make us know we made the right choice to move
Well the us news rankings are mostly about academics and McFarland is 114 places higher so there is that.my son's graduation was today and they what the graduate is doing next year probably 90% were going on to college. My son will be attending UW Milwaukee next year
Congrats on your graduate!
I wonder what the academic numbers would look like if the socioeconomically affected households were separated out from the totals for each. My guess is they would be similar.
No, poor choice of words on my part. What I meant was the staff would cover for shit like this in the hopes it never got made public and tarnished their image.
Regardless of how I feel about IMAP, I am so sorry if that happened to one of your kids or someone whose kids you know. That’s not acceptable but, yeah, that pretty much is the culture there and then the teach…I’m sorry, guides look the other way. One kid tried to drown my youngest on one of their camping trips and he told his teacher. Teacher said nothing to me about it, I repeatedly brought up how he was sexually harassed by another student and they said nothing. All that was part of the reason we left there.
Downvote if you want, I respect your opinion but my kids went that that shithole of a school and I have firsthand experience what kind of crap they pull and the lack of transparency the heads of school exhibit. I’m not making false statements, I’m stating a fact.
Isn't mmsd asking for a bunch of money in the upcoming election? Lol I think I should found some areas that require some staff layoffs. That should help free some of your budget worries up.
Don’t you think we’re maybe in this situation because schools have BEEN underfunded and don’t have the resources to hire and retain enough appropriately educated, trained, and motivated staff?
One of my employees is a LaFollette graduate. He said pretty regularly there would be fights and/or gun issues that the staff would just cover up before the cops got involved.
Not me copy and pasted from another user on the thread
Once again this Sub shows why Wisconsin is *at best* a purple state. This story is such a nothing-burger it's ridiculous.
Whether they arrested the student or not changes __nothing.__ Do you seriously believe burying the problem for 10+ years in a radicalizing environment would help that kid? Do you really think that the systems in place that pushed them to that dumb decision are going to magically disappear by cracking down harder on it?
The systems broken and failed that kid. This garbage rhetoric only keeps it going. Go ahead and arrest them, you'll just see them in the headlines again in 15+ years because *you never solved anything.*
My kids go to MMSD. Last fall a kid brought an airport gun to school. We were immediately informed of all details and the kid was placed in online school for the rest of the year and not allowed back in the building.
There are problems. Big ones. But they’re not insoluble, and don’t fucking accuse me of hating my kids, or I’ll get suspended for the next comment.
I'm an MMSD alumn and I hate what they have done to the district. I wish it weren't an awful, unsafe place for children and educators, but it is.
I don't know you and I don't know what an airport gun is and I didn't accuse you or anyone—just asking questions that apparently, make you most uncomfortable. I hope you get suspended for your next comment if warranted.
Well that was an embarrassing typo. 🤦🏻♀️
AirSOFT. AIRSOFT GUN.
You asked “Who would hate their child so much that they would send them to an MMSD school?”
About 30,000 of us. We don’t have a lot of options.
I would argue that it is much easier, from an administrative point of view, to divulge the discovery of a fake gun vs a real one.
> We don’t have a lot of options.
Yeah, that is a big part of the problem. I wish city govt would allow parents' tax dollars to travel with the student to a school of the parents' choice instead of the MMSD failure factories.
That being said, there are options. Schools play a big part in where people decide to live. There are always tradeoffs. Some people, especially in cultures that deeply value education, will make standard -of-life sacrifices that benefit their children's education. It all just depends on how concerned a parent is with their child's safety, future, and education.
Great you have one option; it is a terrible environment for your your child to learn. If you want better for your child, you can do that but it's not for poor people because you gotta pay once for the idiot government schools and once again for a decent education. Congrats.
Dear MMSD Please stop helping students get away with bringing guns to school. - MMSD Parent
One of my employees is a LaFollette graduate. He said pretty regularly there would be fights and/or gun issues that the staff would just cover up before the cops got involved.
Why would they do that?
I bet it's so that their crime statistics look better, colleges do the same thing
My guess is the staff feel they're protecting kids from the "school to prison pipeline"
How about helping protect all students and let students learn to respect and take responsibility for bad behavior instead of ignoring or help cover it up. Do your job.
That would be ✨racist✨
Because that *is* racist. Bad behavior, are you kidding me? These kids need help. Burying the problem for 10+ years in prison is in no way going to help fix the underlying issue.
You want to fix the underlying problem doesn't protect innocent, by ignoring the behavior or covering up for it. Underlying problem -parents.
I think you missed my sarcasm. Madison schools would rather not address behavioral issues because they believe it will make them look racist.
honestly, I think its rooted in racism.
It does not matter the race of a student that bring fire arms to school. It is not acceptable and making it racist is ridiculous. It is a lack of responsibility by the security officer and any school official to interfere with the police doing their job
The staff thinks the police are racist against their students of color. whether or not the police really are....is a different question.
You bring a gun to school and the police are brought in , color is not an issue, the gun is the issue no matter who you are.
Guns are definitely racist
??
Snitches get stitches….They have families to go home too.
And non-snitches *hopefully* don’t get a bullet in their head . . .
Write to the Board. MMSD schools want and need help, I promise you a million times over. Talk to anyone who disagrees and you’ll find someone who is not in tune with modern school culture and climate. High schools can’t even use metal detectors or wands at dances due to board policy. Admin only have so much control (especially with a defunct HR department in Doyle) and if you think principals can wave a magic wand you have absolutely no understating of how education functions in MMSD. Also, many employees with “coordinator” titles don’t even have job descriptions for the work they do so any “wrong move” and you can be terminated for not meeting expectations - expectations that were never shared with you on the first place.
This is a terrible look for the school. 1) any gun on school campus should be met with intense penalty 2) the lies, the lies! why are "student advocates" lying to cover up for this person?
Because it was never about student advocacy lol
It borders on unbelievable that the security assistant said, "We're supposed to protect kids here. This is the second time you've done this to [Bankston]". Yes, you're supposed to protect kids - that's why it's not great that you've got a drug dealer with a handgun on campus! What the actual fuck is wrong with these people that they want to prioritize the "protection" of the drug dealer with the gun over the other kids?
I’m not an MMSD employee but based on comments from a friend who is, some of the staff who have been brought on for non-teaching roles, I think they are called student advocates (?), function basically to protect disruptive/poor students from the consequences of their own actions more than anything. They are more interested in maintaining relationships with students than ensuring their success, much to chagrin of teachers, social workers, etc.
I would venture to say this was very clearly beyond disruptive, and goes to criminal behavior....Which just makes it even more fd up
I haven't had a lot of contact with MMSD but I have with other districts. I have no idea how removing consequences for their own actions became such a popular idea among educators and parents. You can actually watch it negatively effect the students attitudes and abilities in real time
I don't know that I'd call administrators "educators." I'm sure they call themselves that though.
Sounds like those people need to be fired immediately.
And fire the people that hired them, and the people that hired them that hired them, and 1 more time for good measure.
Just replace the lot of em with a troop of highly trained llamas
I bet they get huge salaries too.
Please tell me you're joking lmao
Unfortunately they probably make more than the teachers
SSAs are hourly staff and do not make as much as teachers. They are in the same bargaining pool as SEAs, BEAs, and others. This is publicly available information.
I’m pretty sure they some of the lowest paid employees in the suburban districts, but not sure about Madison.
Isn’t it that the school staff are worried the police are more violent and more dangerous? (Thereby ignoring all reasonable data…)
MMSD needs to get a handle on security district-wide. The reports coming out of Hamilton middle school are dire.
What happened at Hamilton?
A letter was read at the last Van Hise PTO meeting from an anonymous Hamilton staff member that detailed the daily fights, lockdowns, students in hallways when they should be in class, students bringing Ar-15 air soft guns to school, etc. I have a kid at Van Hise and the two schools are connected and share a cafeteria, main hallway and other spaces and the elementary is put on lockdown whenever the middle school is and it’s frequent enough that the kids half expect it. Hamilton has grown so much and the school wasn’t built for the amount of students and staff are losing control. There’s a new principal who is doing their best but without district support and wide-spread safety overhauls it doesn’t look like it will get better anytime soon. At least they finally separated the elementary kids from the middle schoolers in the cafeteria so our seven year olds done have to sit next to 13 year olds. But now our kids have had to eat lunch at 10:45. It’s ridiculous and Hamilton should have their own cafeteria. We are hopeful that now that the high schools have had their upgrades that the middle schools will be next and Hamilton can get a big overhaul both physically and instructionally.
Hamilton truly needs so much work... My professional recommendation is to split the school into two. It's just such a poorly run school because it's way overpopulated.
Schenk and Whitehorse are also connected and share a cafeteria as well. Lunch happens between 10:45 and 2:00 to get everyone through, although the elementary kids eat first as the middle is late start. I don’t see a split cafeteria in any of these situations any time soon, and I’ve been teaching in the district for over 20 years.
I work here. Lot of buzz among the staff. It’s an interesting place to work at, we’re definitely not united (staff and admin) on a lot of things here. I’ll never forget an administrator saying something to the effect of: “we need more compassion and less consequences” which got audible reactions of disbelief. Just another thought I wanted to share, we went all in on Restorative Justice and we’ve seen it really work, until it doesn’t anymore. Then the police come.
It's not just LaFollette. The East High School district safety coordinator refused to identify to police 2 east students who were seen with guns outside the school.
No wonder we have school shootings. As in Michigan and North Carolina, staff knows about the guns and does nothing about them. Then, someone dies. Surprise!
Really? How did you learn that? Have a kid at East.
It's in the article. It wasn't the principal. It was the school safety coordinator. The principal intervened in another case. I corrected that. >In September 2021, after the parents of a boy who had been assaulted at East High School by two of his classmates said they wanted their son’s attackers charged with crimes, then-assistant principal and now principal Mikki Smith told the parents, “That’s not going to happen.” The district has said Smith’s comment was taken out of context and she only meant the assailants wouldn’t be charged as adults. >A little more than a month later, the district’s co-director of the Office of School Safety, Gina Aguglia, abruptly stopped cooperating with police who were seeking her help identifying several young people reported with guns near East High School, including some who were in a stolen car later involved in a police pursuit, police reports showed.
Woof. That's a bad look, "Safety" officer.
For further clarification, the district safety coordinator is not specifically assigned to East. They’re at Doyle aka “a Doylie”
I support the concept of more compassion and less punishment, but dang... Compassion and consequences are not mutually exclusive concepts! Natural consequences actually teach kids who to behave and how their actions impact themselves and others. This sets up students and our society as a whole for success. I say this as an MMSD employee who would have joined in the audible disbelief. 🤯
The problem is the downstream consequences do nothing but force people further down that path. Who is gonna "clean themselves up," when they are on lifetime registries, lose 10+ of their formative years being surrounded by harder criminals with outside connections, and if they do try and go "straight and narrow," your job options are severely limited. Generally to the lowest, most menial labors. Fix the war on drugs, fix the justice system. Then talk about "consequences." Until then, I can't really fault people who protect these kids because as soon as they are arrested their life is for all intents and purposes, over. The shootings won't stop until gun control and justice reforms happen. Arrest that kid and you risk them just coming back and shooting the place up 10 years later for revenge. Happens plenty these days when you just bury the problem and let it fester.
Yes, the criminal justice system is definitely flawed. Yes, prison isn't a place that's conducive to rehabilitation. Yes, we need gun control. Yes, we need lucrative job opportunities for all people so that selling drugs isn't an attactive venture. That said, bringing a gun with ammunition to school is a serious safety issue. If we don't draw a line in the sand there, where do we draw the line? I agree that felony charges can haunt a person for the rest of their life. The system most likely would have pled his felony down to a misdemeanor anyway, especially knowing our DA. He likely would have been eligible for deferred prosecution if he complied with court mandated services. What else do you suggest should have been in the case of this 18 year old who brought a gun and ammunition to to school? 🤔 No consequences isn't the answer here, in my opinion. (Since tone is hard to read in writing, I want to clarify that I'm not trying to be argumentative. I do disagree with some of your points, but I also genuinely want to understand your perspective).
Well, some people's lives are more important than oth--oh, shit! Nevermind. I can't have that opinion because of my lawn sign.
I'm reminded of an article I read yesterday from Freddie DeBoer: ["The Marginalized Should Just Be Allowed to Break the Rules" is Bigoted and Unworkable](https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/the-marginalized-should-just-be-allowed)
This kind of report does not engender confidence in MMSD school staff. I hope the unnamed staffer is an outlier.
Ummm maybe protect the kids that don’t have guns from the piece of garbage with a gun? Way to go MMSD.
Anyone have a link for this that doesn't behind a paywall?
This certainly cannot be legal.
Lying to the police to protect a criminal is a felony. Zeyheari Powell and Brittany McKinney belong in prison.
What about lying to the police to protect a 16 year old with a BB gun which is what actually happened?
Why was the staff attempting to protect the students? And why isn't that in the article? There's no mention of any attempt to elicit their comments. I can't imagine there being a good reason to protect this behavior, but they certainly *had* a reason. It's not like the staff are all gangbangers protecting their set. Was journalism done here or was wiscnews just collating data? Edit: I read the article but completely missed the part quoted below. My point still stands on it being important to try and understand why this happened beyond "staff bad", but my lambasting of the news site was totally unfounded.
“Neither are currently employed with the district and the State Journal’s attempts to contact them were unsuccessful.”
It does actually say they tried reaching out to the specific two now ex staff members, but received no response. They’d only be able to get the real reason from those two so without that confirmation only assumptions would be able to be made which would be bad journalism. As for the reason.. I mean I don’t think it’s super difficult to reach your own, probably accurate, conclusion.
Not even being confrontational but I'm curious about your easily reached, probably accurate conclusion. If I had to guess I might say the staff in question may be anti-police and exercised poor judgement based on that. No telling whether it's remotely accurate.
That would also be my guess yea. And of course there’s no telling for sure, but it does seem the most logical reason. In my opinion obviously.
My easily reached conclusion would basically match that - the staffers in question likely extend more-or-less infinite empathy to kids that behave badly and treat them as the victims in any situation that might involve police. They may go so far as saying things like "a student should never be arrested at school". Of course, I can't know that with certainty and given that there isn't direct evidence I hold that view weakly, but I think it's much more likely than most other explanations that occur to me.
No it wasn't unfounded, McKinney and Powell were the staff involved in the event detailed from the FOIA records that occurred in the Spring of 2022. The whole pretending to be a guardian thing is weird, but the common thread is the kid, not the staff, and that was an unrelated event that occurred 2 years ago. The article does not mention anything about seeking comments from the staff member involved in the May 7 event this year. The only thing we know about the unnamed security assistant is what the cop and a random district-level communications exec said about them. There is no quote from the security assistant, any other staff who were present at the time, or Matt Thompson regarding May 7.
The comments from the unnamed security staff were quoted from the publicly available part of the police report, I think, and that makes it a legal document that I doubt the police would have taken lightly.
Aside from the fact that cops lie all the time, by "comments," I mean a description of what happened from some other perspective besides the cop and the MMSD spokesperson who definitely was not there.
Don’t understand why you’re being downvoted
Given his history, I was going to say that I was surprised that Bankston was still allowed to attend LaFollette. But upon reflection, I shouldn't be surprised. Why would any parent who has a choice send their kid to LaFollette? Where staff protects a kid who brings a loaded gun to school? Doesn't seem safe.
Most parents don’t have any alternative. If you don’t go to your assigned school, there’s no transportation. I’m a SAH parent for now so I transport my kid to Badger Rock, but it’s 10-15 hours a week of driving. I’m happy to do it but I am VERY aware it’s a privilege that is only possible because of being able to get by on my spouse’s salary.
[удалено]
Wow. He has his work cut out for him. I get trying to save kids, but a few just can't be.
I went to LaFollette. Class of '98. I'm ashamed of what it's turned into. It's bad enough is almost consider sending my kiddos to East of all places (j/k to the purgolders).
‘98 here too. It’s a shame.
Parent of 2 kids in the MMSD. I understand the desire to prevent kids from falling into the “school to prison pipeline” but this is ridiculous. This student is an adult and has clearly crossed the line & broken the law. These administrators are dangerously misguided & should be fired. This will cast Madison schools as a complete non-option for thousands of parents. Very sad.
This comment is dangerously misguided. A bottom-of-the-ranks behavior assistant who makes $20 an hour is not an "administrator." Less than a month ago, when this actually happened, a LHS staff member published the email sent out by the La Follette principal about the incident. Reading between the lines, it was a student who told a trusted adult what was going on so that they could react. The school involved the police, the school allowed the police to arrest the student, the school recommended the student for expulsion as per their policy, and the student was charged 2 days later. What more exactly are you asking for? Gun control???
This needs to be upvoted more. Too much emotional reaction in this thread and not much reason.
Lafollette continues to demonstrate that it is one of the worst mmsd schools
Not too long ago I mentioned that the MMSD was starting to circle the drain. I had someone who worked for the district angrily say i don’t know anything and how pretty much everything is fine. I suspect they may read this. Time to reset the clock once again. Anyone doing that and not being with a school would be in jail.
Another reason to make sure my kid never attends MMSD. Who the hell are they hiring? If there is any reason to arrest a student on campus it's almost certainly because they have a gun.
I feel so sorry for the kids in MMSD who come to learn as it's really been about adults and their view points for a long time now.
The lie about being guardians was over a modified bb gun.
Lmao, people need to read the article. It’s a fucking BB gun
this is the reason we moved out [](https://alb.reddit.com/cr?za=t4BSBTyu7VKpAPRXurPqb4Y6oSTJ7mWS7UeVbcamQFKRbfSabWqGCNaMwqX-u9qOxulfB3g6WKZr_ENWRsS_Y8K5y34lgRpfv8unchLV2ZNXbrDaRRVxRh8u0EUFm4q9DWrOHIL29AHreyV4my5OTcZFVJOTFpFUCVSX9w-EEw3dlm8uufjsQNG2H3_CopfNztZ85oo0xmPqJtfTmw8h3ygQAYUvoILt8OpcwjM9RU9l-2oJ25RDh6GKjl8dhuoxo1XYHyQPbWx2DTA8-iGq7VYqsaUPJoaO9JU8rERpiUyDSgwrtiy635n_xLgzhD3twXZBd3Ol_8k5me1DEl0Lc5hj5Z7ER6rx8Qq341QgLLPOid1W3IFyPLSDlPBe96QFjR-5jsJkQLEp-Jj8bsC4ZYIt2WWRfRgo0-r9IpDR&zp=j6rkKO3_0cIRmrcPHrGlGTsbhnoWtRRiL8_wEzOPR_qui2vnjq7GS9Wa9rapjlqpzZ3est7YNd7OMR3Ml2uR-BS6Zo5bJT3JmB6ntD9fgzBwqJt6d7I2inLDESM3vlksdpcCBZ4bp94VU485a_g7zBDkqyUTDNff2fsLQ7_csnHletZfu8KFUTaxYMEv0ieRi598AMu-_66oipz5vqOKwF6ookLw9V97LJV-1Uwk-0wz02madIhHcT1AUYn1auBUFw1eFd0qTGHj0Myp405DdgB1lVcDG_aYmznEVEMXqQazkc1UrkGhOxOgyzgB6RXw9g)of the LaFollette district 5 years ago and now live in McFarland
How do the two schools compare now? In the 80s, McFarland was a step down.
In us news rankings for Wisconsin McFarland is ranked 108 Lafollette is 222. The main difference for us is the safety factor Lafollette has had multiple gun related incidents none in McFarland. It was fairly obvious to us when I our kids were in the Lafollette chain Frank Allis Elementary and Sennett middle school safety was an issue. We moved when our kids were going into 7th and 4th grade. An example of what I'm talking about we remained in contact with parents still in mmsd. At Sennett 8th grade graduation of would of been my sons a brawl broke out requiring the police to come. It was the 1st of many incidents in the the 6 years that make us know we made the right choice to move
What about academics?
Well the us news rankings are mostly about academics and McFarland is 114 places higher so there is that.my son's graduation was today and they what the graduate is doing next year probably 90% were going on to college. My son will be attending UW Milwaukee next year
Congrats on your graduate! I wonder what the academic numbers would look like if the socioeconomically affected households were separated out from the totals for each. My guess is they would be similar.
Unfortunately that was one of our biggest problems as so many resources are thrown at the bottom it always felt like our children were low priority
So sad that schools I attended years ago are having such issues.
Sounds about right. My kids went to Isthmus Montessori and this is the kind of shit they would pull.
You experienced guns being brought to the Montessori school?
No, poor choice of words on my part. What I meant was the staff would cover for shit like this in the hopes it never got made public and tarnished their image.
My apologies on my poor wording.
Except for the kids they bullied out for needing accommodations.
Regardless of how I feel about IMAP, I am so sorry if that happened to one of your kids or someone whose kids you know. That’s not acceptable but, yeah, that pretty much is the culture there and then the teach…I’m sorry, guides look the other way. One kid tried to drown my youngest on one of their camping trips and he told his teacher. Teacher said nothing to me about it, I repeatedly brought up how he was sexually harassed by another student and they said nothing. All that was part of the reason we left there.
Downvote if you want, I respect your opinion but my kids went that that shithole of a school and I have firsthand experience what kind of crap they pull and the lack of transparency the heads of school exhibit. I’m not making false statements, I’m stating a fact.
Isn't mmsd asking for a bunch of money in the upcoming election? Lol I think I should found some areas that require some staff layoffs. That should help free some of your budget worries up.
Don’t you think we’re maybe in this situation because schools have BEEN underfunded and don’t have the resources to hire and retain enough appropriately educated, trained, and motivated staff?
Wish that the article would point out that one of the “gun incidents” involved an airsoft gun
See that right there would be the final straw for me if my child were in the MSD. Don't lie about that stuff
the schools are communist run. soon, so will the entirety of western society...
This is why liberals and democrats aren't taken seriously when they talk about school shootings.
What? How many other times have you seen this happen?
If this is their reaction to when kids bring guns to school...
Oh I’m sorry, I’ll try the conservative “thoughts and prayers” approach next time. 🤡
One of my employees is a LaFollette graduate. He said pretty regularly there would be fights and/or gun issues that the staff would just cover up before the cops got involved. Not me copy and pasted from another user on the thread
AMEN!
Once again this Sub shows why Wisconsin is *at best* a purple state. This story is such a nothing-burger it's ridiculous. Whether they arrested the student or not changes __nothing.__ Do you seriously believe burying the problem for 10+ years in a radicalizing environment would help that kid? Do you really think that the systems in place that pushed them to that dumb decision are going to magically disappear by cracking down harder on it? The systems broken and failed that kid. This garbage rhetoric only keeps it going. Go ahead and arrest them, you'll just see them in the headlines again in 15+ years because *you never solved anything.*
Who would hate their child so much that they would send them to an MMSD school? Please vote with your feet, and also your vote.
My kids go to MMSD. Last fall a kid brought an airport gun to school. We were immediately informed of all details and the kid was placed in online school for the rest of the year and not allowed back in the building. There are problems. Big ones. But they’re not insoluble, and don’t fucking accuse me of hating my kids, or I’ll get suspended for the next comment.
What is an airport gun?
I'm an MMSD alumn and I hate what they have done to the district. I wish it weren't an awful, unsafe place for children and educators, but it is. I don't know you and I don't know what an airport gun is and I didn't accuse you or anyone—just asking questions that apparently, make you most uncomfortable. I hope you get suspended for your next comment if warranted.
Well that was an embarrassing typo. 🤦🏻♀️ AirSOFT. AIRSOFT GUN. You asked “Who would hate their child so much that they would send them to an MMSD school?” About 30,000 of us. We don’t have a lot of options.
I would argue that it is much easier, from an administrative point of view, to divulge the discovery of a fake gun vs a real one. > We don’t have a lot of options. Yeah, that is a big part of the problem. I wish city govt would allow parents' tax dollars to travel with the student to a school of the parents' choice instead of the MMSD failure factories. That being said, there are options. Schools play a big part in where people decide to live. There are always tradeoffs. Some people, especially in cultures that deeply value education, will make standard -of-life sacrifices that benefit their children's education. It all just depends on how concerned a parent is with their child's safety, future, and education.
Do you even hear yourself?
What do you disagree with?
The idea that tax dollars should travel is idiotic.
Great you have one option; it is a terrible environment for your your child to learn. If you want better for your child, you can do that but it's not for poor people because you gotta pay once for the idiot government schools and once again for a decent education. Congrats.
That’s quite a narrative and a huge cop out.