Greg Anderson
Newly promoted East High School principal Brendan Kearney (right), with East alum Pat Richter (middle) and former East principal Mike Hernandez.
After learning from Madison school board president Gloria Reyes that district officials had decided to make Brendan Kearney the permanent principal of East High, school board member Ananda Mirilli quickly sent an email asking district administrators to hold off on the hire.
The email, obtained by Isthmus, was sent with support from board members Ali Muldrow and Nicki Vander Muelen. Mirilli lists board colleagues Savion Castro and Cris Carusi as sharing her concerns. But Castro tells Isthmus the email was sent without his consent. Carusi, in a statement sent by Tim LeMonds, the district’s public information officer, says that she also did not give permission to include her name on the email.
“I believe these families, the East community and the entire MMSD community deserve to know what happened, who was all involved, what really happened with communication to the families and law enforcement and clarity on our crisis response,” wrote Mirilli at 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 20. “Our community deserves to know what we have done to support our families immediately after the first call was made by the students and subsequent events thereafter.”
About an hour later, interim Superintendent Jane Belmore informed parents via email that Kearney would be the new principal at East High, effective immediately. Two sources confirm to Isthmus that Belmore knew board members had previously raised concerns about moving forward with the hire.
David Kruchten, a business teacher at East and the advisor for the DECA club, was one of two chaperones on the school trip to Minneapolis where hidden cameras were found in the rooms of students. On Jan. 30 he was arrested on seven federal charges of “attempting to produce child pornography” for two separate incidents in 2019. On Feb. 6, he was also indicted on three counts of “interfer[ing] with privacy against a minor” in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The criminal complaint alleges Kruchten placed hidden cameras in three rooms “that were positioned in bathrooms in places where the likely intent was to capture sexual imagery.”
The cameras were concealed in a smoke detector and in two air fresheners.
“One of the victims noticed an air freshener on her bathroom counter and went to press a button that she believed would activate the spray. When she pressed it, the device opened up to reveal the inner workings of a surveillance camera,” states the Feb. 6 complaint. “The device was brought to the attention of the advisors and all of the affected rooms were searched for additional devices.”
Around 90 minutes after students discovered the cameras, Kruchten turned in two of the devices to hotel staff. The complaint alleges that he lied to hotel staff about where the cameras were found and about turning over other devices to security staff. A parent made the first call to the police the next morning after learning from their child about the cameras.
Upon returning from Minneapolis, Kruchten attended an initial meeting with students, parents, and other school officials, including Kearney. He was placed on administrative leave by the school district two days later. The educator is still on paid leave but the district says he will not be returning to East.
Yorel Lashley asked the school board, at its Feb. 3 meeting, to look “as soon as possible” into how school officials responded in the hours after East students found cameras in their hotel rooms. Lashley “works closely with children of one of the families affected” by Kruchten’s alleged actions and was there to testify on the family’s behalf.
“I urge you to fully investigate the details and timelines of what happened to see whether the response was appropriate, prioritized students’ safety, informed parents appropriately, and upheld mandatory reporting requirements,” Lashley told board members. “If all was done appropriately, then perhaps this is an opportunity to reassess how those policies achieve, or don’t achieve, our goals and priorities as a community.”
A parent, whose child was on the DECA trip, talked to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 6 about concerns that “there were not sufficient safeguards in place to prevent this from happening.”
“There is clearly not a plan that was followed once the incident occurred," the parent told the paper on the condition of anonymity.
Mirilli wrote in her email that she didn’t believe Kearney’s hire would be well received by “the families most impacted by this horrific incident.”
“The board’s short brief on this matter was insufficient and left a few of us with unanswered questions,” wrote Mirilli. “Given the sensitivity of this matter and the fact that we are limited in our own investigation...I believe it is prudent to wait.”
Former East principal Mike Hernandez, who was promoted in 2019 to chief of high schools, led the hiring process for his successor. In an interview with Isthmus, he explains that the district initially collected information about what attributes the East community would like to see in its new principal. A survey, specifically requesting feedback on Kearney, was also distributed.
“We had roughly 90 staff [members], 700 students and 200 to 300 adults [fill out the survey],” says Hernandez, who was East’s principal for four years. “I would probably say about 80-90 percent was really positive.”
Hernandez says a community panel of East students, parents and staff was also organized and the group conducted a nearly two-hour interview with Kearney. Isthmus has requested the survey feedback on Kearney from Tim LeMonds, the district’s public information office, but has not yet received it.
Hernandez says that Kearney, as interim principal, has kept “students’ needs at the center” and ensured “all students are receiving support.”
“As a first-year principal, Kearney’s done a great job at being able to handle all of the demands, as well as continuing to want to get better,” says Hernandez. “The team felt this was an extremely strong fit.”
LeMonds tells Isthmus the district is “limited” in what it can say about the camera incident.
“We’re still waiting on the investigative authorities to allow us to move forward on an internal administrative review,” says LeMonds. “We keep communicating to [authorities] our desire to resume that administrative review as soon as possible. That’s basically where that is at.”
Even so, LeMonds says the district concluded Kearney’s “oversight of that whole incident was very appropriate.”
When asked to comment on the school board members’ objections, Hernandez responds that “everyone has an opinion.”
“My job is to make a recommendation to the superintendent. The superintendent then informs the board. And the role of the board is to support the suggestion from the superintendent. I’m not sure if there is any district in the nation where a [school] board hires or fires teachers and/or principals,” says Hernandez. “The voice of our community is what [the school board’s] voice is. And that voice said they supported and wanted Mr. Kearney as the principal.”
[Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect that Savion Castro and Cris Carusi dispute that they gave Ananda Mirilli permission to include their names in her email to district officials.]
