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.
I call bullshit on the claim it’s “because of how bullying cases were handled”. Looks pretty straightforward, racist AF to me.
And even if that were true, or more likely he was a racist dickhead, either way: if he had such a big problem, if he wanted to protest…you don’t have to publicly cross the stage at graduation. Not that he’s smart enough to reason this out. But crossing the stage is a privilege, it is public recognition, it is a community event. The graduate need not be compelled to participate; she could have received her diploma in the mail (like most do, anyway) & stayed home.
Although judging by the girl’s reaction, her father was acting off-the-cuff, alone, and without her knowledge. I’m hoping that’s the case. Racism is fucking stupid.
The girl looks confused and mortified. Poor kid just wanted to graduate…
All he had to do is wait it out one more night and they would never have to see the scary man again. Instead, he announced to the world what is going on in his head and there’s nothing good in there.