The father of a Baraboo High School graduate blocked his daughter from shaking the hand of the Black superintendent as she graduated, video of the incident shows.

The school district, which has had repeated problems with racism and antisemitism, held its graduation Friday. The father was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, Wisconsin News reported.

The father, who has been identified as 49-year-old Matt Eddy, jumped on stage, grabbed the superintendent and began dragging him to the back of the stage.

  • twinnie
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    6 months ago

    The article also mentions that it may have happened because the father was unhappy with how the superintendent had dealt with the daughter being bullied.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I mean, that’s what he said.

      But he didn’t care about the white principal…

      And he didn’t just stop a handshake, he bullrushes the guy off the stage.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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          6 months ago

          Superintendents don’t really get involved with things like bullying or discipline unless some felony level laws have been violated. That’s something handled at the school level

        • FakeGreekGirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 months ago

          Then why specifically the superintendent? Even if this was a bullying issue with an unsatisfactory conclusion, there’s no way he would have engaged with the superintendent of the district without engaging with the principal first. They would both have failed to resolve the problem, so why would he have gone after the superintendent specifically and left the principal there to shake his daughter’s hand?

          And, of course, the other issue is, even if that was true, that doesn’t make what he did OK. He’s marginally less shitty by virtue of not being openly racist, but he still made sure that his daughter’s last memory of high school is him getting arrested for assaulting the district superintendent and embarrassing her in front of the entire graduating class and their families.

            • FakeGreekGirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              6 months ago

              Because even a moment’s consideration will tell you a situation where the district superintendent and only the district superintendent is responsible for poor handling of a disciplinary situation is extremely fucking unlikely.

              You are going out of your way to give a psychotic parent who assaulted a school official benefit of the doubt that he has not earned.

    • Paprika@lemmy.cafe
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      6 months ago

      Local station News 3 claimed that social media comments say that the father was angry at the way the district handled bullying issues related to his daughter.

      “Social media comments” = some redditors making shit up because they can’t admit that racism exists.

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It doesn’t matter the source. Could be Facebook friends of the racist. A school superintendent does not handle bullying issues other than setting a general policy, being in the loop for expulsion/lawsuits, and firing negligent principals. It’s horse shit however you slice it. I think I met a superintendent once or twice.

        • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          And of course every school district is identical.

          Bottom line, we don’t know shit about his motive. But ooh soo many people are so sure they somehow know.

      • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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        6 months ago

        I was leaning more towards social media comments = other racists doing damage control

    • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      “I was unhappy with how he was a black guy when dealing with it.”

      -the father probably.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      If that was the case then he really hadn’t thought of the optics of this.

    • KuroiKaze@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Thank you for being one of the only people to show they actually read the article. You can remove black from the headline and this changes how everyone will react. It’s hard to tell if it’s racially motivated or he and this guy have had beef and he didn’t want the guy in the video/picture they were gonna hang on the wall.

      • itsgoodtobeawake@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Yeah I was looking for someone to mention this… Like, sure, the guy could be a frothing at the mouth racist, that’s certainly possible. Or… There is some personal beef, without more information I dunno how everyone is so sure. He doesn’t say anything overtly racist, we know what it looks like but that isn’t the only possibility. Is there something I missed that justifies everyone’s confidence here?