A Wisconsin man could face a disorderly conduct charge for rushing the stage during a high school graduation ceremony to stop his daughter from shaking the superintendent’s hand.
TV43 Baraboo streamed the ceremony at Baraboo High School on May 31. A viral clip of the incident that drew more than four million views on X showed a female graduate walking the stage.
The moment she starts shaking hands with school board members and administrators is when her father, a white man, storms the stage, grabs Superintendent Dr. Rainey Briggs, who is Black, and pushes him away.
Viewers can hear Briggs protesting in the background.
“You better get him off me, man,” Briggs said. “Get away from me, bro.”
Meanwhile, district officials watched the encounter in confusion before two off-duty police officers and a school resource officer intervened. The man’s daughter looks visibly upset before leaving the stage.
“That’s my daughter,” the man is heard saying on the video. “I don’t want her touching him.”
Graduates and onlookers cheered as police led the man off the stage. Officers escorted the man out of the venue.
In a statement to Atlanta Black Star, the School District of Baraboo said there is an “active investigation into the matter” and that the district is “working very closely with law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation.”
While the district didn’t name the individual who pushed Briggs, they did confirm he is a parent of a Baraboo High School graduate. Police referred the incident to the Sauk County District Attorney’s Office for criminal disorderly conduct.
“This joyful celebration of our students’ achievement was interrupted by an adult who became physically aggressive towards the Superintendent, Dr. Rainey Briggs,” district spokesperson Hailey Wagner said in an email statement.
“That this adult felt emboldened to behave in this way in front of hundreds of students and other adults should deeply trouble us all; this type of behavior will not be tolerated. The School District of Baraboo Board of Education condemns such actions and asks the community to take a stand and speak out against this type of behavior that threatens the fabric of our democracy,” the statement continues.
Many people condemned the man’s actions, expressing anger and disappointment at the discriminatory behavior on display.
“How utterly disgraceful,” one X user wrote.
“You can see the look of disappointment on her face. That and almost like not this again. Like this isn’t unexpected behavior from this man,” another person said.
When asked whether the district is investigating race as a factor in the incident, Wagner told Atlanta Black Star, “The investigation is ongoing.”
The Baraboo school district has come under fire in the past for incidents involving racial harassment and discrimination.
In 2018, a photo circulated across social media showing a large group of white male Baraboo high school students making a Nazi salute before their junior prom. According to The New York Times, then-superintendent Lori Mueller apologized and said the photo was “rightly described as hateful, frightening and disappointing,” but added that the district was “in no position to punish the students for their actions” due to their First Amendment rights.
In 2020, Dasia Banks, a Black student who attended Baraboo schools, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the district, alleging a pattern of racial discrimination that the school officials ignored. The complaint detailed instances in which Banks was taunted and racially harassed by classmates and also sexually assaulted by a classmate. The district settled with Banks the next year and paid her and her attorneys $862,000.
Briggs was appointed the Baraboo superintendent in 2021. At the time, the district served more than 2,800 students, only 1.6 percent of whom were Black, while 80 percent were white.
An NCES report from 2024 revealed that 2,701 students are currently enrolled in Baraboo schools. Approximately 90 percent of them are white, 4 percent are Hispanic or Latino, and 1 percent are Black.
