By Elizabeth Wadas and Jordan Gartner
Published: Jun. 13, 2024 at 7:32 PM CDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV/Gray News) - A school superintendent in Wisconsin is speaking out for the first time after a parent pushed him off the graduation stage nearly two weeks ago.
Superintendent Dr. Rainey Briggs spoke with WMTV this week after what happened garnered national attention with many calling the incident racially motivated.
Briggs says a lot has happened since the push, and he finally found himself ready to talk about it.
“As I was standing there the student was coming through and I see peripherally, I see a white dashing shirt coming up the stairs. A part of me was like that’s a photographer coming to get a picture or whatever. But he descended upon me,” he said.
According to Briggs, it was when the parent, later identified as Matthew Eddy, said something to him after pushing him off the stage that he knew something was wrong.
“He said you’re not going to touch my effing daughter. And at that moment, I was like, ‘Oh crap. I don’t think I’m safe in this moment,’ which means the other people in this space aren’t safe either,” Briggs said.
After the push, officers rushed in to help diffuse the situation.
Eddy was taken to the office and Briggs quickly returned to the stage to hand out more diplomas.
“That was important because we have 250 students that were graduating. My heart goes out to his daughter, my heart goes out to all the others who were graduating because this is, to date, their biggest accomplishment. To have things stop or not continue because of one person who caused a scene wouldn’t have been right,” Briggs said.
While Eddy was being questioned, he told officers why he pushed Briggs.
“This comes down to my daughter. I’m not cool with him treating my daughter the way he did,” Eddy could be heard saying in a surveillance video from the resource officer’s room.
The police report said Eddy told an officer he and his child “had past issues” with Briggs and “disliked him.”
The report continued to state that Eddy wanted to prevent Rainey from having the satisfaction of shaking his child’s hand. So, he went onto the stage to prevent that from happening.
When the officer asked Eddy if he was sorry for what he did, the report said he was, but only for his child’s sake.
The officer determined the push had been “pre-planned.”
“I’ve seen the audio and video of his interview and investigation with the police. It still doesn’t make sense to me. In that moment I had no idea who he was. I can tell you; I’ve never had a conversation with Mr. Eddy. There was an encounter two years ago that didn’t result in any back-and-forth dialogue or anything like that related to his daughter,” Briggs said.
Instead of associating Eddy with a particular graduate, Briggs said all he could think about was his safety and the safety of others.
“At that moment, I had to try to give myself space so that I could look and see, ‘Does he have a weapon? A knife? Gun? Or another object that could cause me harm in the moment,’ So, there was that fear of what’s about to happen,” Briggs said.
Since graduation night, there have been local and national outcries that Eddy pushed Briggs because he’s Black.
Briggs says that’s still a question that needs to be answered.
“Matthew Eddy is the only person who could tell us all. Was this racially motivated? Was this anger motivated? Ultimately, he’s the only person who can tell us,” Briggs said.
That’s not the only question the superintendent has for Eddy.
“Why in that moment? Why disrupt this graduation of 250 kids at the pinnacle point in their lives? What would you do to fix this? How will you restore this particular moment not only for me, but for your daughter, those students? You think about the 3,000 people in the arena that night. And the issues and hurt it’s also caused the community,” Briggs said.
Eddy has not immediately responded to requests for comments regarding the situation.
A judge has since granted a restraining order filed by Briggs against Eddy.
“The purpose in filing that restraining order is not only to provide safety for myself, but also for my family. I have no idea what his intentions were. So, I have to protect my family and myself,” he said.
Eddy faces one misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and is due in court in August.
Copyright 2024 WMTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
