Madison Reporter

State Sen. Melissa Agard is demanding answers after a fight recently broke out at Madison East High School in a crowd of more than 100 students and parents.

“Looking for details about what is going on @MadisonEastHS,” Agard posted on Twitter. “Our kids and teachers deserve to know they are safe, their family members deserve to know they are ok and @madisonpolice on location. Pepper spray. Police. Fire. Ambulances. Scared kids locked out.”

WKOW reports officers were forced to use pepper spray to break up the melee on Nov. 8, which required several ambulances being called to the scene. According to Dane County Dispatch, police initially responded to a call of reports of a fight at 11:37 a.m. A 27 News crew also reports as many as 10 squad cars responded to the scene, though no arrests have been reported.

Channel 3000.com reports as police were on their way to the school, dispatchers alerted officers that a gold van occupied by students involved in a previous fight was leaving the area. After arriving at the scene, an officer reportedly used their squad car’s PA system and sirens in an effort to break up the crowd. While there, officers witnessed another fight break out, adding that the victim and their friends involved in that skirmish refused to talk to officers and left in a vehicle.  

Thus far, officers said they have not been able to speak with any of the victims or identify any potential suspects.

“MMSD takes these incidents very seriously and is working with all involved East students and their families to determine consequences following the district’s Behavior Education Plan and to identify restorative options,” district spokesperson Tim LeMonds later told News 3 Now in a statement.

Madison East High School Principal Steve Leavy was recently reassigned to a different role in the Madison Metropolitan School District after students staged several protests over his handling of an alleged sexual assault that recently took place at the school.

In a statement, LeMonds told media members Leavy accepted a position as Director of Secondary Multi-Tiered Support and Scheduling for the district.

“This change reflects MMSD’s commitment to ensure our school district has a leadership team who are in roles that best optimize their experience and skills to move MMSD forward toward reaching our Strategic Framework goals,” LeMonds said in a statement.

Madison East High School Assistant Principal Mikki Smith was installed to serve as interim principal for the rest of the 2021-2022 school year. Smith has been the assistant principal at East High for the past 11 years.

As part of the protests, East High students staged multiple walkouts, demanding the school reform its policies around sexual assault after a young woman was allegedly raped by a student during a party on Homecoming Nov. 6.

As the scandal unfolded, students insisted Leavy did not take their concerns seriously.

“In the meeting he said ‘I know that you feel there has been a sexual assault’ and we were like ‘we know, we know there has been one’ and he was belittling our voices and belittling the stuff we were telling him and we just won’t stand for that anymore,” East High senior Feliz Castañeda said earlier this month.

Student leaders also argued this isn’t the first time they feel the school has failed to appropriately address the issue of sexual assault.