Carolyn Fath Ashby
The Madison school district has repeatedly refused to release a report detailing its own investigation into whether district policies were followed during a field trip to Minneapolis in December 2019, when hidden cameras were found in the hotel bathrooms of students. Those events would lead a month later to the arrest of East High educator and trip chaperone David Kruchten. But the district, without explanation, recently released the full report of its internal investigation to Isthmus as part of an open records request related to another hidden camera incident at East.
In spring 2020, the district paid private attorney Malina Piontek roughly $8,000 to conduct the independent administrative review of how the district responded to events during the field trip to Minnesota. Isthmus reported in March 2021 that the district cited “attorney-client privilege” in keeping the full report secret — a move that angered parents and open government advocates. Even school board members weren't allowed to read it. Only a two-page summary was released publicly, finding “no failure on the part of district staff” to follow district policy. It also determined that statutory requirements for mandatory reporting of child abuse were met.
Unlike the summary of the internal investigation, the full report states that mandatory reporting requirements on child abuse didn’t need to be met: “Based on the present facts, there was no sexual abuse or exploitation warranting” district employees to follow mandatory reporting laws, it says. The full report also notes that “due to the trauma experienced by the EHS students, a determination was made not to interview students for this review.”
Isthmus asked the district why it released the full report now after months of refusing requests from parents, the media, and school board members. We also asked who made the decision not to interview affected students or their parents and whether district officials agreed with Piontek’s claim that mandatory reporting laws didn’t need to be followed because hidden cameras found in the hotel bathrooms of students doesn’t fit the legal definition of child abuse.
District spokesperson Tim LeMonds has refused to answer these questions and has uncharacteristically not responded to several requests for comment.
Isthmus has been in contact with several parents whose students were on the Minneapolis trip with Kruchten as part of a conference for an extracurricular club. Their names are being withheld to protect the identities of their children. One parent tells Isthmus the full report confirms suspicions that district administrators did not conduct a proper investigation.
“It's upsetting. It shows the limited scope of the investigation, reveals a serious lack of detail and accuracy, and puts in writing disturbing logic to justify the lack of immediate action and mandatory reporting,” the parent tells Isthmus.
Kruchten admitted in federal court on Aug. 16 that he placed hidden cameras in the hotel bathrooms of students he was chaperoning during multiple extracurricular trips in 2018 and 2019. The educator pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to produce child pornography and one count of transporting a minor with the intent of producing child pornography. As part of his plea deal, Kruchten is registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Kruchten’s arrest followed a December 2019 field trip to Minnesota. There, shortly before midnight on Dec. 7, a student opened up one of the air freshners in her hotel bathroom and found a hidden camera. Students then found several other devices concealing recording devices, including in other hotel bathrooms of East students.
The unabridged report of the district’s investigation states that students immediately turned the devices over to an unnamed East teacher, who was also chaperoning, who then gave them to Kruchten. Kruchten then turned some of these devices over to hotel staff; according to Minneapolis police, the devices were missing the camera’s data cards. Students then found more concealed cameras which were turned over to Kruchten. He is alleged to have lied to the Minneapolis police about what he did with those devices, which were never found.
The district's full report, written by Piontek, notes “Per the District’s Extended Field Trip Policy and procedure, Krutchen [sic] and chaperone completed mandatory reporting training in September, 2018. I conclude that staff were aware of what is required to be reported under Board Policy 4222, and further, they did not violate Board Policy 4222 by not making a report of child abuse to law enforcement while in Minneapolis.”
Neither Kruchten nor the other East teacher contacted parents, law enforcement, or district officials about the cameras the night of the Dec. 7 incident or in the early morning hours of Dec. 8.
Students, however, were communicating with their parents. One parent called the hotel the next morning, prompting hotel staff to make the first call to law enforcement. It was also a parent who informed Jay Affeldt, the district’s executive director of student and staff support, of the incident. After being interviewed by the Minneapolis Police Department, the students, Kruchten, and the other East teacher headed back to Madison around 10 a.m. on Dec. 8. A district official informed the Madison Police Department about the incident around 3 p.m. Kruchten was placed on administrative leave two days later and resigned from the district in February 2020. The other chaperone is still a teacher at East.
In a February 2020 email to parents, then-interim Superintendent Jane Belmore announced the district would be conducting an internal investigation to review “every detail of this case to make sure that our system is as strong as it can possibly be to keep our students safe.”
Piontek, the private lawyer who conducted the investigation, is a former assistant director of labor relations for the Madison school district. In a March 2020 email to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Molly Beck, district spokesperson Tim LeMonds wrote, “When MMSD made its decision to conduct an internal review of the [district’s] overall response, and further decided to have a 3rd party conduct that review, it retained Ms. Piontek's services based on her reputation in education law, school district expertise and her high level of performance conducting past investigations that MMSD had retained her for.”
The two-page summary and the full report of the internal investigation conducted by Piontek recommended changes to the district’s field trip policy and updates to its social media guidelines. Superintendent Carlton Jenkins, who joined the district in August 2020, told parents in an Oct. 5, 2020, email that he hoped these policy changes would be finalized before the end of the 2021 spring semester.
A current school board member, who asked for anonymity, is not aware that any of these recommendations have yet been acted upon. The district has not responded to Isthmus’ request to clarify whether any policy changes have been enacted. The district’s website indicates no revisions to its field trip or child abuse reporting policies since 2016.
The scope of the district's investigation was also limited to the December 2019 field trip to Minneapolis. The district has not indicated whether it will look into field trips in 2018 and 2019 to Lake Geneva and Wisconsin Dells during which, federal investigators believe, Kruchten also placed cameras in the hotel bathrooms of students.
Kruchten is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in October; he faces between six and 20 years in prison and decades of extended supervision. He might also be required to pay restitution to any student he chaperoned on a field trip while a teacher at East High School. He also faces state charges in Minnesota.
