Kenosha County Eye editor Kevin Mathewson has won a lawsuit against KUSD that was filed on October 9, 2024, and settled last Friday. Mathewson, in the lawsuit alleged that KUSD intentionally withheld and concealed records involving a former Temper High School IT employee, Robert Merritt, that was allowed to resign after allegedly sending unsolicited “penis photos” to other staffers at the school among other serious sexual harassment allegations.

Under the terms of the settlement, KUSD turned over the records, paid KCE’s legal fees, issued KCE a letter of apology, and paid Mathewson the maximum statutory damages of $100. When we reported the lawsuit initially, we promised to donate the $100 to Alliance Women’s Clinic in Kenosha. KCE initially thought the organization was a conservative anti-abortion non-profit, but a representative of Alliance said that the group was trying to “work with KUSD” and didn’t want to offend the school district by accepting the donation. They didn’t want this uncovering of sexual misconduct in the KUSD school system to hamper their ability to “get inside the schools.” KCE is now offering to donate the $100 to a different local non-profit. We are looking for suggestions.

Lawsuit

KCE made a public records request on May 20, 2024 for “Any document or combination of documents that list[s] the name and title of all KUSD employees [on] administrative leave as of today.” This was a spot check to keep an eye on the embattled district.

On May 22, 2024, KUSD denied our request in a two-page letter, written by one of KUSD’s attorneys. KCE threatened to sue, and on May 29, 2024, KUSD provided us with the list that contained one name, Robert Merritt. He was a Technology Support Technician for Tremper High School.

Over the next several months, KCE checked on Merritt’s employment status. On September 8, 2024, we made a public records request related to Merritt, asking for “any disciplinary, coaching and training, investigative and separation documents with Robert Merritt, Technology Support Technician[.]” On October 4, 2024, we received a two-page record which KUSD said were the only two pages that met our request. A one-page leave letter stating that the employee was being placed on administrative leave while KUSD conducted in investigation into “alleged inappropriate interactions [the man] has with a(six) KUSD staff at Tremper High School” and a resignation letter was all that was released to us. He was allowed to resign about three weeks after being placed on leave, citing nothing about the alleged inappropriate interactions.

What KUSD did not know, is that after receiving our request, this former employee must have told many people about our request. We received calls and emails from many alleged victims of this man’s behavior. We know what was investigated by KUSD and that KUSD collected evidence and questioned many staffers at the school. In other words there was a full investigation and that was well-documented.

Allegations

And or around May 14 2024, Kevin Neir met with an employee at Tremper High School along with Mr. Knecht, the principal. The employee informed Neir that she had been a target of sexual harassment from a co-worker, Mr Robert Merritt, technical support technician at Tremper. She stated that Mr. Merritt would send her pictures of his penis. She said after she received the pictures, Mr. Merritt came to her office and asked her if she “liked it,” in reference to the pictures he sent her. She told merit that it was not professional. During the interview, she told Neir that there were other women she knew that had also been subjected to harassment by Mr. Merritt. She also said that in addition to the pictures, that Mr. Merritt had sent her, he came into her office on one occasion and shut the door behind him and begin to glare at her in an intimidating fashion for several minutes. She stated that she felt trapped in her office and he was blocking the door which was her only way of escape. 

Mr. Knecht, the principal at Tremper admitted that he had already warned Mr. Merritt about comments he had made to another female co-worker about her appearance. 

Merritt was interviewed and asked if he had ever touched a female staff member inappropriately and he said he did not remember, but if he did it was certainly not in a purposeful way. He did admit to making a comment to a female coworker about the way she dressed. He told her that “she looked pretty.” Merritt admitted to sending photos of his penis to his female co-worker.

KUSD HR interviewed four other employees. One said that Merritt would put his hand on her thigh but she told him to stop. Another female employee was warned when she was hired that she should be careful of Mr. Merritt as he would “undress you with his eyes.” She said all females know this and they all feel the same way. 

Neir wrote in his conclusion, “based on the evidence gathered by this investigator during this investigation, there is sufficient merit to support the allegation by the female co-worker that Mr. Merritt did submit unsolicited pictures of male genitalia, one of which was his, along with unsolicited pictures and text[s] of a sexual nature.”

Merritt was accused of sexual assault of a minor relative in Racine, but Racine County DA Patricia hanson refused to prosecute him for any crimes.

KUSD allowed Merritt to resign and didn’t attempt to terminate him. Here are some of the text messages: