Baraboo residents speak out about high school graduation incident

BARABOO – Lawn chairs and blankets were hidden along the streets of downtown Baraboo last Friday as the city prepared for its annual Big Top Parade the next day.

In 1884, the Ringling Brothers performed their first circus show in the community and residents are proud of this history.

Today they find themselves in the spotlight because of something that deeply frustrates them.

During the Baraboo High School graduation ceremony on May 31, video footage shows a man storming onto the stage and pushing school district superintendent Rainey Briggs away before he could shake his daughter’s hand. The incident has made headlines in the international press. Many speculate that it was a racist incident because Briggs is black and the father is white. The father is also said to be trying to prevent Briggs from touching his daughter.

The Journal Sentinel is not naming the father to avoid identifying his daughter.

It’s not the first time the town of about 12,500 has been cast in an unpleasant light. In 2018, a group of male high school students were captured in a photo apparently giving the Nazi salute, and in 2021, a former student filed a lawsuit in federal court, settled by the district, alleging years of harassment and discrimination.

More:Baraboo has been criticized for its graduation initiative. Incidents have also damaged the city in the past.

Located on the Baraboo River in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, Baraboo is popular with tourists due to its circus roots and proximity to Wisconsin Dells and Devil’s Lake State Park.

On Friday, visitors to the community confirmed they had heard what happened at the graduation ceremony. Residents expressed frustration at the father’s actions and shame and hurt that their community is being condemned again. They grappled with how to condemn what happened as unrepresentative of the city while acknowledging that they still have work to do to rebuild trust.

“Part of me wants to fight and say, ‘Let me show you how great we are. We’re not like that,'” said Julie Westegaard, whose son Max graduated at the same ceremony. “But another part of me is just so tired. I’m tired of having to fight hate.”

Baraboo residents are appalled by the incident at the graduation ceremony

Westegaard said there was confusion and a moment of fear when the man reached the stage during the ceremony. She and her family ducked, wondering if a weapon was present. When it became clear the man was pushing Briggs out of the way, people in the audience began booing and screaming, she said, before he was escorted out of the room and the ceremony continued.

More:Father of Baraboo, Wisconsin high school graduate is seen shoving school principal during ceremony

Westegaard is also involved in the local group Queers and Allies, which advocates for the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people. She said she feels “humiliated” that people who have behaved badly are influencing Baraboo’s opinion.

“This community is incredible. There’s a reason I moved here. This is where I want to be,” she said. Now “people say, ‘Oh, there are a bunch of racists and Nazis living there.'”

Rachel Frank, an employee at downtown’s Seek Boutique who chalked a Pride Month message outside the store, said she felt sorry for the man’s daughter and the other graduates. At her other job at a local coffee shop, she said everyone who came in was upset by his behavior.

Kristen Philipp, co-owner of the boutique, said that as more people from larger and more diverse cities have begun visiting Baraboo, it is important to her to promote the tolerant community she feels she lives in.

“There are always a few who are louder than everyone else,” said Philipp. “And unfortunately they are the ones who attract all the attention.”

Kendra Griffin, a resident of nearby Lodi who was eating lunch downtown, said the incident was embarrassing.

“It’s not a reflection of the general culture in this area,” Griffin said. “I think like everywhere else, there are just bad people.”

Community reflects on controversies and moves forward

Although community members called the man a bad actor who did not represent their values, they were aware that the city’s past problems weigh on the current discussion.

It is not yet clear to what extent race played a role in events during the ceremony. In interviews, people described a general dissatisfaction with school district administration due to problems such as bullying in schools, but declined to comment. Still, “When you’re a white person in a school that’s almost all white and the principal is African-American … that looks like racial hatred,” Westegaard said.

More:Parents who disrupted the graduation ceremony in Baraboo had “problems in the past” with the school’s principal, according to a police report

Baraboo Mayor Rob Nelson, who also owns a used bookstore called The Village Booksmith downtown, said Friday in his store that the incidents of the past few years have served as a trigger for citizens to take a “good and critical look in the mirror” and question their biases and prejudices.

After the Nazi salute photo was released, the community formed the Baraboo Acts Coalition, whose goal is to make the area safe for people of all backgrounds. Today, the group continues to offer book discussions, educational events and other gatherings that “bring the issues of inclusion, awareness and sensitivity to our attention so we don’t forget,” said longtime Baraboo resident Keri Olson, who was involved in the community’s response to the photo.

PJ Kruschel, small business owner and president of Downtown Baraboo Inc., said past events have made Baraboo think, recognize its problems and work on them.

“I think it’s actually brought us even closer together to improve, to be more vibrant and more welcoming,” he said. “This (incident) is the opposite of what we’re trying to do.”

Still, Kruschel urged outsiders not to apply a blanket pattern to the city. The actions of a single person in other, larger cities are not representative of the entire population, he said.

“People will say what they say and think what they think, people who have never been to our town,” he said. “It’s sad that this is in the spotlight when there are so many wonderful people in our community doing so many wonderful things … they deserve much more attention than this one person.”

Nelson also said that there are people all over the world who make bad decisions every day and that “it is somewhat arbitrary what decisions social media picks up at any given moment.”

“I feel like every community has a lot of work to do on these issues,” he said. “As Baraboo has been in the spotlight a few times, for better or for worse, hopefully we can use that spotlight to lead the way and show other communities how to leverage the wealth of their community.”

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