Is there more to this story?

Do we have our own Jussie Smollett / Covington Catholic high school incident here in Madison WI?

I don’t know and neither do you, which is why Blaska responded this way to a news outlet when asked this morning for comment:

I am hearing that the press has reported half the story. I encourage the news media to not do another Jussie Smollett.

We’re talking about an incident that occurred at Whitehorse middle school last week but was first reported this Wednesday 02-20-19 by Madison365, a publication that specializes in racial advocacy. 

In its story, a teacher called in the acting school principal because an 11-year-old black girl and another student would not obey the teachers’ commands. Some altercation between one of the girls and the responding staff member resulted and then spilled out into the hallway where a distant security camera dimly glimpsed some of the activity.  

School is named after an indigenous American

Madison365 quotes the girl’s mother:

“I didn’t see the punching but on the actual video that I was able to review on Friday from the school district, I did see [the staff member] throwing her down. And you see another teacher that I also spoke with that said that she had to lay on top of (my daughter) to prevent her from getting hit or punched.”

That other teacher had to lay on top of the daughter? Trying to visualize how that would work. No restraining the alleged attacker? Or was the second teacher trying to restrain the 11-year-old?

The acting principal is also variously described as the dean of students and as a “positive behavior coach.” One might think that positive behavior coaches are chosen for their preternatural calm but maybe this one lost his cool, big-time. Or maybe Buddha himself might have been provoked. We just don’t know.

What makes this a news story is that the educator is a white male allegedly assaulting a young black girl. More proof to many that Madison’s public schools — like the community at large — are racist to the core. That naked white racism explains the racial achievement gap and causes teenagers to jack cars and shoot at each other. It’s society’s fault.

Something DID happen

It is clear that something happened at Whitehorse middle school. Certainly, it is not the total hoax perpetrated by the actor from TV’s Empire series. But unofficial and unauthorized police sources tell this bloggeur there is “more to the story.”

We also know that alleged victims are unrestrained in what they can tell the news media — and when. Unlike the police and school officials, who are ordered to remain mum until the investigation is completed. Which can take weeks. We also know that the situation was severe enough that the classroom teacher called for assistance.

The key point here is, please,

DO NOT RUSH TO JUDGMENT.

UPDATE: Madison WILL rush to judge. This just in from The Capital Times:

We harken to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s remarks on Jussie Smollett Thursday:

“This publicity stunt was a scar that Chicago didn’t earn and certainly didn’t deserve. To make things worse, the accusations within this phony attack received national attention for weeks. Celebrities, news commentators and even presidential candidates weighed in on something that was choreographed by an actor.”

The Wall Street Journal editorializes: 

Maybe, as an actor, Mr. Smollett knew his audience—the elite media—would elevate him to political martyrdom, and it did. With Covington and now this, a rush to judgment rooted in a false view of this country’s values produced, as Chief Johnson noted, more gratuitous anxiety and polarization.

Journalist Kevin Williamson calls it “Merciless sympathy:”

— the stratagem by which our natural solicitous feeling toward those who have suffered some wrong or some injury is forcibly reconstituted into support for a particular political agenda grafted onto the unhappy episode. Those who don’t support the politics are treated as though they were victimizing the victim (genuine or hoax) rather than disagreeing about a policy question.

… how doubting the breathless accounts of the Covington Catholic matter becomes racist hostility to an elderly Native American veteran.

Still no school-police contract for next school year

Can be made to fit the narrative

As of this posting, the staff member at Whitehorse middle school has not been charged but his identity even his photograph have been revealed by other sources. We know how this works: his time at Whitehorse is through, done, finished and, likely, in the Madison school district.

Freedom Inc. and their allies at Progressive Dane and the International Socialist Organization will put the man’s head on a pike in their Cops Out of School campaign. If the man is not charged with a crime, if the girl is found to be the instigator, that will be declared proof of the narrative that Jussie Smollett clumsily tried to further (to promote his career). In other words: another official cover-up.

Madison365 responsibly quotes police spokesman Joel Despain to say: “I know those investigating want to talk with more school staff members before reaching conclusions.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Can the rest of us do the same?