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Oak Creek students, parents say their complaints about racism went ignored on state reports

December 16, 2024

Quinn Clark Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Devin Jenkins joined Oak Creek High School halfway through his senior year, graduating in 2023.

Despite his brief time there, Jenkins said he reported at least five incidents of racial discrimination to the district, including name-calling, finding slurs written in bathroom stalls, and unfair treatment from school resource officers.

The incidents continued up to the day he graduated. That day, Jenkins said, a car full of white students yelled racial slurs at him and his family.

But records obtained by Public Investigator show that complaints about racial discrimination at Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District have largely gone unreported to the state, despite students and parents voicing longstanding concerns about the district's treatment of students of color.

Every year since 1986, all Wisconsin school districts have been required to publicly report the number of discrimination complaints they receive to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Both verbal and written complaints should be included — whether they were resolved formally, informally or withdrawn — according to department guidance. Complaints cancome from anyone, including staff, parents, students or community members.

Oak Creek-Franklin's annual reports from 2018 to 2023 show just two complaints regarding racial discrimination. These complaints, one informal and one formal, are both from the 2018-2019 school year.

However, Oak Creek High School's own internal data shows 14 alleged incidents of racial discrimination reported by staff in the 2022-23 school year alone, Public Investigator found.

Public Investigator requested the same reports from four nearby school districts — Muskego-Norway, Waukesha, Greendale, and Elmbrook. None reported as few complaints as Oak Creek-Franklin.

For example, Muskego-Norway Schools, which has about 1,700 fewer students than Oak Creek's 6,500, reported 48 complaints related to racial discrimination from 2018 to 2023.

The data submitted in the forms helps both the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and school districts create equitable education for students, according to department spokesperson Chris Bucher.

"That is our collective goal," Bucher said.

Oak Creek-Franklin Superintendent Dan Thielen said the district only reports incidents that were formally documented in official complaint forms. He said the district hasn't received any since 2018.

In an email, Thielen said that students calling other students an "inappropriate name" does not fall under the state's nondiscrimination policies because it is "not discrimination."

"That would be considered harassment," Thielen wrote.

However, Wisconsin administrative code includes "pupil harassment" in its definition of discrimination. The state's forms also include several sections for school districts to report complaints that "one (or more) student(s) harassed another student."

Related:After racist incidents, Oak Creek-Franklin schools spent $27k to study how to improve. Now what?

Jenkins said Public Investigator's September article regarding the school district's plans to address racial discrimination inspired him to share his story. When he learned his complaints weren't reported to the state, he became concerned.

"Especially me being a victim of the racial profiling that's going on at Oak Creek, all it does is let me know, simply, that they're up to no good," said Jenkins.

Sara Gray, spokesperson for the National Equity Project, a nonprofit focused on promoting equity in schools, said the gap between reported incidents and community accounts suggests important voices may be being silenced or overlooked.

"When young people experience racism but see it go unreported or unaddressed, it impacts their sense of belonging in their school community," said Gray.

And when students don't feel heard, safe or respected, she added, they're less likely to fully engage in learning.

District's data reveals dozens of racist incidents reported by staff

Oak Creek-Franklin School District initially refused to disclose how many discrimination complaints it has received over the years.

Under Wisconsin's open records law, Public Investigator requested the number of complaints of racial discrimination lodged by students or parents from 2014 to present, as well as the district's responses.

Thielen denied the request, citing the need to protect students' privacy.

However, at a school board meeting a month later, the district presented data on faculty reports of "racially insensitive acts" at Oak Creek High School from 2022 to 2024.

According to human resources director Troy Hamblin's report, high school staff reported 14 "racially offensive" incidents in the 2022-2023 school year and 25 in the next.

According to the meeting agenda, the district pulled the data after a parent complained about a "very toxic and hostile district-wide school environment filled with systemic racism" over the summer.

Thielen did not respond to questions from Public Investigator inquiring why the district denied the news organization's records request, only to release similar data in a public meeting shortly after.

More updated data was released at a subsequent Oct. 28 school board meeting. This time, the figures included middle and elementary schools.

At the meeting, Hamblin said the district recently began asking teachers to report incidents of "racially insensitive language."

According to Hamblin, teachers reported 31 incidents of racially insensitive language across the district this school year.

Her report made headlines, but wasn't reflected in DPI report

Some incidents became widely known but were not in the district's state reports.

Kenosha Unified School District parent Vickie LeFlore's complaint made headlinesafter her son found the N-word written in the dust in the locker room before his basketball game with Oak Creek in 2021.

LeFlore said she met with Oak Creek district faculty about the incident on multiple occasions.

After an investigation resulted in no answers about who was responsible, LeFlore said she had a hard time believing nothing could be done.

"I don't feel like they took it serious enough to do anything," LeFlore told Public Investigator.

Her fears only worsened after the district's DPI reports showed zero complaints of racial discrimination in 2021.

"I'm just very disappointed," LeFlore said.

In an email, Thielen said the investigation was "incredibly thorough."

He argued that the incident did not need to be reported to the state because the person who wrote the words was not believed to be a district employee.

"It was purely a student issue," Thielen wrote.

Bucher, the spokesperson for the state Department of Public Instruction, said the agency will investigate complaints that a school district's discrimination report is not accurate.

In its most recent statewide report, the department said school districts reported 4,640 complaints statewide from 2021 to 2023.

More:Public Investigator answers reader questions on civic life, consumer issues in Wisconsin

Oak Creek parent spearheading reform efforts said district has been slow to act

In recent years, the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District has been working to improve conditions for students of color, largely spearheaded by former Oak Creek High School parent Genene Hibbler. Hibbler's daughter, who was set to graduate in 2025, decided to transfer schools after what she described as years of reporting racist incidents without results.

Hibbler told Public Investigator it was her complaints that prompted the recent school board meeting disclosures about discrimination incidents.

After learning that complaints weren't reflected in DPI reports, Hibbler said it hurts her heart for those who came forward over the past three years.

Last year, at the request of Hibbler and other parents, the district commissioned a racial equity study by Milwaukee-based consulting firm Derute Consulting Cooperative.

Even if discrimination complaints were accurately shared with the state, the district is coming up on one year since the Derute report without a commitment to change, Hibbler said.

"We are advocating for better, but they haven't done anything," Hibbler said. "That's just how I see it."

Quinn Clark is a Public Investigator reporter. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Quinn_A_Clark.

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