What’s Going On at West High?

Last week a student was beaten in a bathroom at Madison’s West High School. The school district would like you to know that there’s nothing to see here.

Press reports of the incident were sketchy due to the standard lack of information provided by the district. Then a video of the incident, recorded on a cell phone by someone who was present, surfaced on the Internet. In response, West High Principal Dan Kigeya sent an email to parents.

For the record, I’ve seen the video. It’s very brief, but also violent and disturbing. Still, I wouldn’t call it graphic. It shows one student (I’m assuming everyone in the video is a student, but I don’t know that) violently kicking another student who is on the floor and apparently attempting to cover their head. Other students are in the frame, but it’s not clear what they’re doing.

While certainly unpleasant, it’s an important piece of information for law enforcement and even for the public. We have a right to know what’s happening in our schools.

But that’s not the way Principal Kigeya sees it. He appears to view it mostly as a public relations problem.

Kigeya’s email begins: “I’m writing this afternoon to let you know that we anticipate further media coverage, likely tonight, of last week’s episode of violence in our school. As many of you are aware, one of our students recorded the incident with their cell phone. We do not know whether that footage will be included in any reporting, but recognize the harm that both its existence and further media items about this incident are likely to continue to cause.”

That should send up all kinds of red flags. Kigeya — and I would assume his superiors in the Doyle Building — see the existence of the video not as evidence that will help authorities prosecute the perpetrators, but as a problem. In fact, they view any further media coverage of the incident as something that will cause “harm.”

So the attitude at West and at Doyle is that all of this is an unfortunate public relations issue to be managed with as little information as possible going out to the media. Much like the attitude of the district’s former long-time chief information officer who was supported by his bosses for years, the media would appear to continue to be the enemy at MMSD.

What’s needed right now is transparency. Here are some good questions that the public (read taxpayers, read the people who are paying for the schools) deserve some answers to:

• What precipitated the incident? Are there concerns about reprisals?

• How serious were the injuries sustained? Press reports are that the victim was hospitalized. There are HIPAA constraints, but with the victim’s cooperation the public should know just how serious this was.

• What is being done to deal with the perpetrators? Press reports are that there were three teens arrested, but not yet charged. Are the Madison police getting the full cooperation of the district? That has not always been the case with prior incidents. What is the status of the perpetrators? Have they been suspended? What other disciplinary actions will be pursued?

• Might a School Resource Officer — they were removed from the high schools a few years ago — have been in a position to head off this incident? I know that any answer will be speculative, but it’s an issue that should be raised.

• How typical is this kind of incident? What are the latest figures on police calls responding to violent behavior? How does that compare to previous years, especially to years in which SRO’s were present?
• What role did the Behavior Education Plan play in this, if any? Were the students involved in this incident engaged with the BEP in the past? If so, why didn’t those interventions prevent this?

None of those questions were remotely dealt with in Kiyega’s email. Instead he wrote:

“Over the past week, we, as a school, have collectively and individually sought the space to process what took place, check in on one another and navigate a path forward. That has included: 

“Our Administrative Team meeting with both our Student Safety Committee and Madison Teachers Inc.’s Problem Solving Committee, to discuss student and staff feelings of safety and well-being in our school, and how we can best support both groups moving ahead;

“Our Critical Response Team meeting to discuss active supervision, staffing our most critical areas and building improvements to support building safety;

“Holding staff support/processing circles with our Restorative Justice Coordinator and Central Office supports;

“Convening a staff meeting to discuss the incident and provide factual information, as well as a space to process/heal; and

“Providing staff with talking points regarding how to help students work through what occurred.”

Now, some of that is fine, but I read about a lot space, a lot of processing, a lot of committee meetings. I see nothing here about answers to real issues and tough questions. I’m less concerned about how everyone feels about this than I am about what’s being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Kiyega ends with this: “You, our students, our staff and all who have a stake in the continued success of our school have my utmost commitment to continuing to listen, learn and work together to build a culture of safety at West that ensures all feel seen, supported and secure in our building.”

Notice who is left out of that list of stakeholders in our schools? It’s the public. Whether he intended to or not, the principal revealed an attitude and it’s one that permeates MMSD: Circle the wagons and don’t confront the hard questions.