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.

  • MidnightBanjo@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    I wish the Headline was more accurate.

    Reading the story, he wasn’t arrested for blocking a handshake, he started forcibly dragging the superintendent to the back of the stage

      • geekworking@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s more likely battery than assault. Battery is just putting hands on. Assault generally needs higher threat level and/or more violent actions.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          assault and battery are both vaguely termed legal definitions that depend on what state you’re in.

          in MN, there’s no legal definition for battery, with assault being defined with multiple levels ranging from ‘mere’ threats through “poked me on the arm” to beating the shit out of someone.

          In WI, where this happened, it seems they’re the opposite with the only mention of ‘assault’ be related to sexual assault. and battery being similar to MN’s assault charges. Though, I only took a cursory look through their laws.

        • MidnightBanjo@lemmy.zip
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          1 month ago

          Oh agreed it’s still could be a crime, but the headline makes it sound like all he did was block a handshake, when really he did a lot more

  • twinnie@feddit.uk
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    1 month 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.

    • Paprika@lemmy.cafe
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      1 month 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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        1 month 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.

    • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

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

      -the father probably.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 month 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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          1 month 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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          1 month 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.

          • terminally_offline@infosec.pub
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            1 month ago

            Yeah but my issue is with the fact that people immediately jump on the racism train. But there’s still no proof. The info leads to the conclusion that the guilty party in his daughter’s bullying was the guy he assaulted, don’t know why people are rioting over the fact that he didn’t assault someone else?

            It’s like make-believe racism.

            • FakeGreekGirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 month 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.

              • terminally_offline@infosec.pub
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                1 month ago

                Psychotic parent? Yes. Agreed.

                But not racist. I don’t feel like not calling non-racists racists is actually “going out of my way to defend them”. In fact, I feel like the opposite is true when people try to push a false narrative.

                • FakeGreekGirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  30 days ago

                  Again, you’re giving massive benefit of the doubt by assuming the psychotic parent is not racist and that he’s telling the truth about the bullying situation, especially when his actions don’t seem to match his words.

                  Just because he says he’s not racist, doesn’t mean he’s not racist. And his actions look pretty damn racist.

    • KuroiKaze@lemmy.world
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      1 month 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.

  • JPSound@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    So, I’m from Baraboo. Though I haven’t lived there in well over 10 years now, I still have friends and family who reside there still. The day after this happened, the video was already making its rounds in our various discord servers, getting texts from family members with the original video link and it was all around big deal. Everyone was fucking pissed at this guy and there were soooo many people in my circles that wanted to see him named, shamed and royaly buttfucked by the court of public opinion. It didn’t take long at all for someone to go, “hey, I know that guy. He works as so and so” and I’m happy to see that the cat is out of the bag here. It seems he has been fired. His employer is well aware at this point and have scrubbed all mention of him from their website.

    The one and only way to unfuck my hometowns garbage residents is to hang them out to dry in public and I’m glad this is national news. When someone wants to pull some racist shit, let it be known that we’re gunna make sure their racist bullshit will be put on display for all the world to see and the consequences shall be yours and yours alone to bare for your stupid bullshitery. Baraboo is such a cute little town but GODDAMN some of these motherfuckers are an embarrassment to our town, our state and our county.

    • Kayday@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      This just makes me sad because until today my only association with Baraboo was whimsical childhood memories of the circus there.

  • nkat2112@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    So glad to hear the racist was arrested. Beautiful news!

    I feel sorry for his daughter, because she’ll be remembered in the community for having a racist father. I imagine there will be lasting harm from that.

    • Seraph@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      Even if the community doesn’t hold it against her, and I hope they don’t, she’ll never be able to forget.

    • ALQ@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I mostly feel sorry for the man who was attacked, and glad he wasn’t further harmed. I also feel bad for the daughter, but I think it’s sad that most of the comments on the YT video don’t even mention the victim while sympathizing with the daughter.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 month 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.

    I don’t buy that. She seems surprised and embarrassed. And I would think you would have an issue with the principal rather than the superintendent.

    Also, whose social media comments? His? Random people?

    • GroundedGator@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Not saying it’s justified to bully anyone, but maybe the fruit has rotted with the tree.

      A more hopeful part of me believes that she’s been saddled with a toxic family and has suffered for it. And now she’ll be able to escape and be free.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        I tend to think the latter considering she at least had the social intelligence to just GTFO of there after putting her hand on her forehead in embarrassment.

    • Vespair@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      This whole “all the homophobes are closeted gay men|all the racists secretly fetishize black men” thing is reductive, unrealistic, and unproductive. This dude is gross as fuck and I’m glad he’s getting charged with something at least, but chocking these things up to underlying latent sexual urges is weird and doesn’t solve anything. I’m going to pivot to homosexuality as it think it’s a clearer example now: yes there have been a number of bigots who have turned out to be closeted gays in denial, but concluding from that that all bigots are closeted muddies the water and prevents us from tackling the real root causes of bigotry and, frankly, makes “our side” (for lack of a better term) seem unnecessary sexually-obsessed.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I didn’t want to be the first one to say it, but Conservative white men really are obsessed with being cucked by Black men. They seem simultaneously turned on by it, and ready to commit murder over it.