Student Beaten in Toki Middle School Bathroom

WKOW-TV via a kind reader’s email:

Parents of students at a Madison middle school worry about safety after a child was beat up in one the school’s bathroom.
The incident happened last week Thursday.
According to a letter sent home to parents Monday, a group of students followed a male student into the boy’s bathroom where another student assaulted him.
The group blocked entrance to the bathroom.
Surveillance cameras show the beating along with a group of witnesses cheering on the violence.
Toki [Map] Principal Nicole Schaefer says the school sent the letter to alert parents that the proper actions were taken and assure them the school is safe.
Schaefer would not tell 27 News if any students were suspended or if the victim is back in school.

Toki Middle School Restorative Justice Plan [82K PDF]:

Judicious discipline is a three pillared process set on a solid educational foundation. The first pillar is prevention through education and positive behavior supports; the second pillar is equity through fair and consistent consequences, and the third pillar is restoration through empathy, forgiveness and conflict resolution. The educational foundation that these pillars stand on is curriculum, instruction and assessment practices that are engaging, rigorous, culturally responsive, and individualized. In summary, kids who are engaged in learning are less likely to engage in misconduct.
The backbone of our discipline policy is that all staff and students must be treated with dignity and respect, including those who harm others. We want everyone to know that misconduct is never acceptable, but always fixable. We will be warm but strict, and follow through with clear, fair and consistent consequences, but also encourage students to repair the harm they caused, earn forgiveness, and restore their reputations.
When a student engages in misconduct, we must care for two interests:

  1. The student who misbehaves – We teach the student how to repair the harm, earn forgiveness, and restore his or her reputation
  2. All other students – We protect their health, safety, property, and opportunity to learn in an environment free from distractions

Therefore, when a student engages in misconduct, he or she has two options:

  1. Fix the harm (ex: Apology, Mediation, Repair or Replace, Community service, Extended learning)
  2. Accept a consequence (ex: Lunch detention, After school detention, In school suspension, Out of school suspension, Suspension alternatives)

The consequences for misconduct will vary, depending on how the behavior harms the health, safety, property and learning opportunities of other students. Although choosing to “fix the harm” may reduce or replace consequences for less harmful misconduct, behaviors that significantly or severely harm others will result in mandatory suspension days, up to a recommendation for expulsion.

40 students ( 2008/2009 student population is 538) open enrolled out of Toki Middle school for the 2009/2010 term according to this Madison School District document. Much more on Toki here.

12 thoughts on “Student Beaten in Toki Middle School Bathroom”

  1. For something this egregious, option #1 above should not be available. Group violence should not be excused with a simple “fix the harm”. I wonder if anyone videotaped this one for YouTube…..

  2. I’m (sadly) a Toki parent. I overheard a family talking about this at a restaurant Thursday night (a week after the incident), and their kid (I think he was an 8th-grader) says that about 25 kids got suspended.
    That letter from the principal may have been dated Monday, but we didn’t get it until Thursday. It was not “sent” home as WKOW said; it was “mailed” home. Ironically, no one else I know received it until Thursday, either – AFTER the Weds night PTO meeting, where the subject wasn’t even brought up.
    At the beginning of the school year, we were told that the second security guard who’d been assigned to the school after last school year’s big behavior complaints was no longer with us. Apparently, that was just a public relations bandaid. Instead, Toki got security cameras. Which you’d think would be a good thing. But no. The staff doesn’t actually watch live footage, they told us. They simply refer to tapes if there’s ever an issue – AFTER THE FACT.
    A few months into the year, Toki finally got a second security guard again (gee, I wonder why?). We’ll see if he’s in next year’s budget or not. My guess? Not – because MMSD doesn’t give a crap about this school. If they did, they’d put principals and staff in place who had a track record for dealing with kids like this.
    On the WKOW site, one person posted a comment asking where the teachers were in all this. Here’s your answer: One teacher recently told a friend of mine (another Toki parent) that virtually all of the teachers at the school are too afraid of the kids to come out of their classrooms, so they hide in their classrooms instead of doing hall duty. It’s not that these teachers are weenies; it’s that the level of violence is apparently that dramatic. At last year’s community meeting about violence at Toki, you may recall, several teachers said they are actually afraid to work there.
    The other WKOW commenter noted that his/her kids will definitely step in to help a kid in trouble (if no adult is) – despite the Toki letter from the principal advising otherwise. My kids, too, if they’re able, will always try to help other kids who are in danger (and previously have done so at their elementary school). Why? Because the staff sure doesn’t! What many don’t know without reading between the lines in the principal’s letter is that the she is saying that good kids need to stay out of the way – or they’re going to risk suspension or detention from being involved. (The staff can’t be bothered to be present when problems like this happen, but they don’t want any kids trying to help, either. And they don’t care enough to realize that some kids want to HELP and prevent violence, so they just lump everyone in together and punish them all. Sorry, victim! Hope that’s OK with you!)
    Toki and Orchard Ridge Elementary are loaded with problems and have been for three or more years – pretty much since they both got new, inexperienced principals. Hmmm. Connection? People are taking their kids out of these two schools to go to private school (if they’re lucky enough to be able to afford it), or moving out of the neighborhood to try a different Madison school, or simply moving out of the city altogether.

  3. “No adults could enter the bathroom to assist the victim because the entrance was blocked by the group of students. ”
    The above is from the letter Toki sent to parents.
    My first reaction is: OMG! Do the “adults” MMSD hired have absolutely no backbone? No shame?
    Could his happen unless the school itself is run by the child-thugs? It does certainly add meaning to “child-centered school.”

  4. That is incredulous, Larry. I don’t know the staff rules, but one would think that staff is allowed to physically remove a child if that child is an impediment to rescuing another child. I’m using the term “physically remove” politely here. I think you are right- at least in this building, the kids rule the roost!

  5. Obviously, the School Board cannot comment on their failed “Restorative Justice Plan”, as we can all assume that this matter will be in litigation within the week. Normally, I dislike “ambulance chasers” but, this would be a good case for one to take.

  6. Our middle school had the exact same issues as Toki. It took involved parents, new principal(s), and the attendant staff morale boost to overcome. It CAN be done.

  7. Jefferson had similar issues a few years ago. I do not believe it was anything like Toki has been for the last 5 year…..but the addition of a vice-principal, a positive behavior coordinator (whose main job is to check on the known trouble makers throughout the day and keep tabs on problems/attendance/and other issues) and one simple but major change was the shortened time between classes and the elimination of anyone in the halls during class time. (If found in hall after bell they go to detention) It was an adjustment for the kids to get to the bathroom between classes but wow did it decrease behavior problems. I think the difference however, is Jefferson has 20 kids of concern out of 500 and Toki has 100 kids out of 550. I think sometimes we work too much and spend too much money on a few kids at the expense of the majority. And the judicial response they have come up with for these kids, really says how little they know about the community of students they are dealing with. They are laughable.

  8. There is another issue with the Toki incident that is troubling. MMSD seems to have hidden/delayed notification of this serious incident. That fact (allegation?) that the PTSO met the day before the notice was mailed to parents and the administration did not alert the parents there of the problems is unacceptable to me.
    We need transparency in how the schools are run — not long after the decisions are made by the administration, but so that the parents and public can have input into what the appropriate decisions should be.
    It is much to late to rely on the rubric of letting the “experts” do their job when the practical consequences is continual failure. We’ve seen how well financial and political “experts” have handled (made) problems.
    A Richard Feynman quote: “I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. ”
    Larry’s corollary: “Experts looking at problems in their field of expertise are often just as dumb as the next guy.”

  9. I am deeply saddened by what is happening at Toki. When there are fights at Memorial, the staff will run to the fight, rather than run away. Some teachers will step in to try to physically remove a student from another one, but often half of the battle is crowd control, clearing the area and calling in for backup. It’s really scary to try to break up a fight and it is not something we are trained to do, but we do our best to support each other and protect the students until security, police or administrators arrive at the scene.
    I’m not blaming the teachers at Toki; something has to be going on that’s preventing them from stepping in. It sounds like a really hostile environment in which to teach. But, what’s much worse is the way the kids feel about their school, and the way they seem to feel about school in general. These kids are getting the message that this is acceptable and that this is what school is.

  10. I went to Toki in 6th grade (I’m an 8th grader at Spring Harbor now) and thought it was bad then, but what happened then is nothing like this. It’s scary that this is allowed to happen, and attentive teachers could have stopped this. Truly depressing.

  11. We in the Jefferson neighborhood have heard that the district is transferring many troublesome Toki students to Jefferson to balance out the “trouble”. Can anyone help me verify that? That really troubles me as a Jefferson parent not only because my kid will be affected but more so that Toki seems incapable of dealing with its own problems. I don’t just blame the admin at Toki – what about the district administration? (TC – former shop teacher).

  12. I teach at Toki. I have been at this school for many many years, and have seen good and bad management and teachers. This is the worst case of poor management I’ve ever seen.
    At Toki, we feel abandonded by the school board. The staff have notified administration (downtown) personally and through MTI about the deteriorating conditions of employment at this school. Within the last couple of weeks, I’ve personally broken up two fights, grabbing one of the students and physically restraining him while one of my colleagues grabbed the other. I don’t want to put myself in between two people who are throwing punches, but I can’t in good conscience walk away either. Still, I’m not trained at restraint, and I don’t want to be. That is not why I am a teacher!
    I love teaching, and I love introducing children to all the wonderful knowledge that is available at their fingertips, but I have not been trained to be a security guard, or a social worker, or a psychologist, though those are the jobs I end up doing on a daily basis.
    Now, we’re told that, because parents are opting out of Toki…what a surprise!…some services will be cut. Hmmmm…fewer resources and classes for a population which has more needs. Something’s not right.
    We at Toki need help. Please…hear us and bring some order to this school!

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