Dave Cieslewicz

A student at Madison’s La Follette High School comes to school with a handgun and two magazines of ammo in his backpack. When Madison police show up to arrest him, a security guard and other staff members harass the cops. In another incident at the school, a student (perhaps the same one — he hasn’t been identified) brings a handgun to school. The cops arrive to arrest him and two staff members claim falsely to be his guardians in an effort to stop him from being arrested or prosecuted. 

In that first incident this spring, the security guard yelled at an assistant principal for having called the police. “We’re supposed to be protecting kids!” he charged. Madisonians might be justified in responding, “say what again?” This is a security guard. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that protecting kids would suggest that, I don’t know, maybe you remove the kid with the gun and ammo in his backpack.

This is insane and the insanity begins at the top with the Madison School Board. That ideologically rigid group sees enforcement of simple, common sense safety and discipline measures as aiding in an alleged “school to prison pipeline.” So, those staff members were simply carrying out the ideological madness they hear from the very top.