Germantown teacher placed on leave, parents voice anger over communication

A Germantown School District teacher has been put on leave for inappropriately communicating with a student, according to its superintendent Dr. Chris Reuter.

TMJ4 learned about this over the weekend after parents and students reached out to our newsroom with concerns. Parents said they had heard rumors about a Germantown High School teacher on leave, but that the district wasn't saying anything.

We went to the high school Monday to see if parents knew.

"Quite angry. Like I said, something should've been sent out, calls should've been made, people need to be aware of this," Germantown parent, Carl Amundson, said.

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We called the district Monday morning, but no one answered. So we went there in person and were told to email the superintendent.

An hour and a half after emailing Dr. Reuter, we got an email that said the district confirmed on Tuesday, May 14th, a report was made that a teacher shared inappropriate content with a student.

The teacher, according to a statement sent to parents Monday afternoon, was put on leave Wednesday, May 15th.

However, parents in the district said they believe the actual incident happened a month ago.

The district stated that communication was not provided to the community at the time of the allegation to "ensure that all legal responsibilities regarding staff employment were followed."

Reuter said the investigation is still ongoing and student safety will remain the district's top priority.

"We shouldn't have to wait for you guys to reach out to them, that they should just be more transparent with us," parent Lisa Vick said.

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"Me having a student here, I wanna know about it. I wanna know details, and what's being done, and how this can not happen again," Amundson echoed.

An internal email sent to parents who have students in this teacher's class details the teacher submitted his resignation Monday, effective immediately.

On Monday night, TMJ4 attended the school board meeting to try and get answers from the superintendent. He declined to comment.

A few parents spoke out during the public comment period, sharing their concerns over the lack of transparency and communication from the district.

"You should care more about the safety of our kids than about some teacher who has possibly done something very wrong," said Jenny Hetzel. "Very, very ashamed, and I'm sure you're all frustrated too, but transparency."

A representative from the Germantown Parents for Public Education group sent us the following statement:

"We understand the administration and board must address sensitive personnel matters and investigations confidentially. However, the district has a responsibility to be transparent with the community about risks to student safety and the specific actions it is taking to address them. The district's silence is unacceptable. Families need to know that the district is taking this matter seriously and will act accordingly.

For all the talk about "parental rights" from the school board, they have yet to provide any information to parents. High school students have been talking about the situation for days, which leaves parents unprepared to have appropriate discussions with their students and younger siblings who hear about it. Parents need to know about situations as soon as possible, not after an investigation is complete. Parents also have a right to know if their child was a student in this teacher's classroom and whether the district is speaking with students about the teacher's alleged behavior. The community at large should not be hearing about this incident from a parent's public education advocacy group. This is a failure of the district's leadership team--including the school board, HR director, and superintendent--to let this incident go unaddressed for so long."

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this isn't the first Germantown teacher to be put on leave this school year. In January, a teacher was placed on leave after allegedly using a racial slur in a classroom.

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