Baraboo a media circus after father's despicable shove at high school graduation | Opinion
Baraboo, Wisconsin, is affectionately known as “Circus City” because it’s home of the Ringling Brothers and it’s where they performed their first circus on May 19, 1884. Today, it’s still home to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Circus World.
But this past week, Baraboo has been dealing with a different kind of three ring extravaganza: a media circus.
This is due to a viral video of a father jumping on stage and shoving the Baraboo School District Superintendent during the May 31 graduation ceremony. This has sparked controversy across social media and has been picked up by national and even international outlets.
What we know about Superintendent Rainey Briggs being shoved
There has been a lot of speculation, but here is what we actually know as of this morning: A video from Baraboo High School's graduation shows a man shoving the school district superintendent, Dr. Rainey Briggs, away before he can shake hands with his daughter in the congratulatory handshake line. In the video the man can be heard saying “I don’t want her touching him.”
The father has since been charged with disorderly conduct and Briggs was granted a temporary restraining order. In the order filed Monday in Dane County Circuit Court, the father is to have no contact with Briggs pending a June 14 hearing. The Journal Sentinel is not naming the parent to avoid identifying his daughter.
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As for motive, we learned on Thursday night from a police report that the father told officers he “had past issues" with Rainey. In an interview with police, the parent said that he dislikes Briggs and "wanted to prevent (Briggs) from having the satisfaction of shaking (the student's) hand."
Meanwhile, Briggs told police the student "was expelled at one point from the school but (he) does not directly interact with parents regarding expulsions." The superintendent went on to say he could not think of any other interaction with the student's parents.
That’s it. That’s all we know. Since, thus far, the father, Briggs and the school board are refusing to talk to the media.
Baraboo High School graduation subject to intense speculation
But that has not stopped the internet from ascribing that the motive was either overtly or covertly racist. Because, the father and his daughter are white and Briggs, the only person the dad seemed to have an issue with at the ceremony, was also the only Black person on that stage.
I can only imagine that to many people in the Black community, that video looks all too familiar. Without additional details, it’s sometimes safe to assume that if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's safe to bet that it's a duck.
We’re also talking about a school district that isn’t free from racial controversy In 2018, a photo was posted on social media of 60 male members of the graduating class of Baraboo High School appearing to do a Nazi salute in a prom photo.
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Additionally, in 2020, Dasia F. Banks, a Black former Baraboo student filed a lawsuit against the school. The lawsuit alleged that the district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex.
She accused the district of failing to respond to alleged sexual assaults against her and others by a fellow student and of "deliberate indifference and failure to respond to multiple acts of racial harassment and discrimination directed at Dasia F. Banks ... by both students and staff,” according to the lawsuit. In 2021, the district settled with Banks for $862,500, one of the largest settlements for a case like this in Wisconsin.
Racist motives or not, Baraboo father's actions at graduation despicable
However, if there is one thing that the internet is good at, besides hilarious timely memes, is instantaneous hot takes that lack consideration for details or nuance. There are plenty of examples of someone caught on video saying or doing something abhorrent, it goes viral, and the internet's response is "make him famous." That basically translates to: let's dig up everything we can about this perpetrator and ruin their life. There are entire social media accounts with massive followings dedicated to this.
Racism deserves to be called out, but the speed and determination sometimes means that the wrong person gets identified or, in the case of actor Jussie Smollett, the internet falls for a completely fake racism attack. What happened in Baraboo could be racism or it could be personal. It also could be personal but the father felt emboldened to put hands on Briggs because of racism. The public, and by extension the internet, can't confirm any of that.
Yet based on what we know so far, I think the objective take is how despicable it is that, regardless of motive, this man felt entitled enough to assault a community leader in front of hundreds of people. In turn, he stole the attention from his daughter and her classmates on their graduation day and instead created a three ring media circus around himself.
Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Video at Baraboo High School graduation went viral along with hot takes