Fuller Trial Day 4

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Jill Schwenzen (D) was the vice principal of Bradford High School in 2018 and 2019. She testified in court today that she oversaw the deans and was in charge of student discipline. In January of 2019 Kylie Juga was attacked by Martice Fuller. He twisted her hand and bent her fingers back, turning her hand white. He refused to let her go even after being ordered to several times. She cried uncontrollably. Two security guards responded to the classroom along with a Kenosha Police Officer. Schwenzen also responded to the classroom. Juga and Fuller were both escorted to the office separately but the two groups met up in a common area. Fuller was instructed by the police officer not to touch or talk to Juga. He ignored the officer and grabbed Juga’s backpack, pulling her toward him. The Officer separated them and Juga spoke with Schwenzen in her office. She told the vice-principal of the history of abuse and control, a lot of which happened at school. Schwenzen later testified that she was a social worker in her previous career and worked for Child Protective Services for 8 years. She told the court room that her experience as a social worker and as an expert in domestic violence, she thought that Juga and Fuller’s relationship was very dangerous and she was extremely scared for Juga. Even with all her experience and knowledge, she didn’t want Fuller kicked out of Bradford.

Schwenzen told the Jury that she took Fuller to the Administrative review board because what Fuller did was an expel-able offense. The KUSD administrative review board agreed with Schwenzen’s recommendation to not expel Fuller. Here is a list of the members of the KUSD review board at that time:

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Daniel Tenuta
Gordon Hess
Peter Pingitore
Michael Makowka
Eitan Benzaquen
Bridget Kotarak

A few months later, Fuller murdered Juga in her own home on May 9, 2019. This is sparking a renewed debate about discipline within KUSD. Many board members ran on getting serious with discipline, but few take any steps to keep our kids safe. Many KUSD administrators like Sue Jarvis and Schwenzen are very light on students who commit violence and actually brag about how little discipline is issued. Remember when a student was murdered inside the school in 2017? Less than a month after Fuller’s physical and mental abuse in school, Schwenzen took to twitter to brag about how little discipline was issued under her leadership.

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Schwenzen’s social media accounts are full of Black Lives Matter, LGBT and gun control profile pics and posts. She even tweeted support for LGBT flags in the classrooms. She is a proud democrat.

Shortly after Juga’s murder, Schwenzen left Bradford High School. She is now the Associate Principal at Sheboygan North High School. It is unknown what the circumstances of her departure from KUSD were. We reached out to Sue Jarvis, the KUSD Superintendent to ask her if she was aware of the violent incidents involving Fuller, and she didn’t respond. She did instruct Tanya Ruder, KUSD’s Chief Communications Officer respond to us with a statement. This statement read in part:

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“The answer to your questions would require the District to disclose confidential pupil information, and under Wisconsin’s pupil records statute, Wis. Stat. sec. 118.125, the District is prohibited from disclosing such information. Accordingly, we are not legally permitted to respond to your question.”

Very convenient. The district can’t be held accountable because they assert that all of their records are confidential. We reached out to Schwenzen but she did not immediately return our request for comment. The school board can intervene here and maybe they should. Being lax on discipline can have real world consequences. Unfortunately we saw how.

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