US News

By Nicholas McEntyre

The Wisconsin high school superintendent infamously shoved aside by an angry father who didn’t want his daughter to shake the official’s hand condemned the parent for doing more “harm” than good during the bizarre incident.

Dr. Rainey Briggs, the head of Baraboo School District, said an apology won’t fix the damage Matthew Eddy caused at Baraboo High School’s graduation ceremony on May 31.

Earlier this week, an attorney for Eddy had reached out to Briggs to say the father understood the harm his actions caused with the attorney indicating he was “remorseful.”

“An apology just doesn’t make things go away” Rainey Briggs told the Daily Mail on Tuesday.

“The outreach was really to indicate that he, Matthew, understands his mishap in terms of what he did, what he’s caused. He’s remorseful.” Briggs said. “I took that as some form of apology, but that’s not something I think at this time amounts to a solid apology from my perspective.”

During the ceremony, just before his daughter shook Briggs’ hand, Eddy rushed the stage and pushed the school official out of the way.

During the ceremony inside the school’s gymnasium, Eddy rushed the stage and pushed the administrator out of the way before his daughter shook Briggs’ hand.

‘”I don’t think an apology, an ‘I’m sorry’ makes this go away because there’s a lot of harm that was caused.”

Eddy was escorted out of the building and arrested for disorderly conduct and Briggs secured a restraining order against him.

The 49-year-old father claimed he pulled Briggs away in response to the school official allegedly rolling his eyes during a disciplinary hearing when his daughter was facing expulsion.

“I did not want him to be able to shake her f—king hand because he does not deserve it from her, after all the s–t she went through in this district,” Eddy told police in the video, obtained by WISN.

“He rolled his eyes when I brought up the fact the same thing happened to her and it pissed me off,” the father said the school wasn’t fairly treating his daughter.

“She was expelled for doing the same thing that was done to her, and nothing was done to the previous people,” Eddy added.

Briggs feels bad for Eddy’s daughter and the other 250 graduates who attended the ceremony.

“This is a moment in time for them that they’ll never get back the way they had hoped for this to go,” he added. “That was to walk across that stage with excitement, feeling like they’ve learned a lot, feeling like they’d experienced some amazing teachers. That was all to some degree pushed aside that particular night.”

The superintendent, who is black and took over the position in July 2021, isn’t sure if he was targeted on stage because of his race.

“The optics don’t look good,” Briggs added. “The optics are what people around the world have gotten to see. And it’s caused them to formulate in their minds what was behind this situation.”

“But ultimately, Mr. Eddy is the only one that could tell you whether it was racial or not.”

Briggs said he didn’t recognize Eddy when the father rushed the stage, but the father claimed that the family has had several interactions with him.

“I have not personally had any interactions with him,’ the school’s chief said. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to pick this guy out of any crowd. It wasn’t until after that I was able to pull his name up in the system to see who this was.”

Eddy’s statements to the police following the incident seemingly contradict Brigg’s statement as the father-daughter duo “have had past issues with Rainey and dislike him.”

Eddy told police he “wanted to prevent Rainey from having the satisfaction of shaking her hand.”