(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
**Explicit Content** Kenosha, Wis. — A 10-year-old girl from Nash Elementary School remains too afraid to return to school months after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by two male students on her bus ride home. Despite criminal charges, Title IX investigations, and pleas from the child’s mother, the Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD) has yet to remove one of the accused students from the school, leaving the victim in limbo. KCE first reported on this matter two months ago.
Incident and Investigation
According to police reports, on October 17, 2024, at approximately 1:38 p.m., a Kenosha Police Department Officer responded to a report of a sexual assault involving a Nash Elementary School fifth grader, identified as “Mikayla.”
Mikayla told her mother via text message that two boys, identified as “Damion” (12) and “Jesse” (10), inappropriately groped her chest, buttocks, and vaginal area. A fellow female student witnessed the incident and alerted the bus driver, who then intervened. However, Mikayla remained distressed and later recounted the assault to police officers and in a forensic interview at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin-Kenosha.
The 10-year-old suspect, Jesse told police he had a “bad urge to touch Mikayla.” His 12-year old friend, Damion was with him. Damion told police that Jesse fondled Mikayla’s breasts for “about 10 seconds.” Damion was alleged to have caressed Mikayla’s butt and vagina. Jesse told police that “[Damion] wasn’t going to stop.” One of Mikayla’s best friends intervened and grabbed Jesse and body-slammed him to the ground. Mikayla was seen by her friend in the fetal position. There were many witnesses to the disturbance, and at least two witnesses to the alleged sexual assault.
The boys, both Nash Elementary students, were charged with second-degree sexual assault in Kenosha County Circuit Court as juveniles.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Title IX Investigation and KUSD’s Response
KUSD launched an internal Title IX investigation led by Bill Haithcock, Chief of School Leadership, but the process was riddled with errors. Haithcock used incorrect forms, misspelled Mikayla’s and her mother’s names, and mistakenly documented that Mikayla had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) when she does not. When confronted, Haithcock admitted to using the wrong form and asked for it back.
He also informed Mikayla’s mother that the accused boys had the right to an education and could not be removed from the school. Instead, Haithcock proposed “supportive measures,” such as supervised lunch and recess—measures that Mikayla’s mother found inadequate, noting that elementary school students should already be supervised.
A Title IX investigator, Y. Jackson-Lewis, concluded the investigation with findings that:
- The two accused students ignored assigned seating arrangements on the bus.
- Both admitted to touching Mikayla.
- A witness corroborated Mikayla’s account.
- Mikayla clearly expressed discomfort and distress over the incident.
- Boundaries were crossed, and Mikayla’s personal space was violated.
Despite this, KUSD has failed to implement substantial protections for Mikayla, leaving her out of school since October 21, 2024. KUSD didn’t offer a program to Mikayle that would have allowed her to learn virtually.
Legal Proceedings and District Inaction
While Kenosha Police Department and Nash Elementary School officials, including Principal Brett Basley, have been praised for their handling of the situation, Mikayla’s mother says KUSD’s leadership continues to “drag their feet.”
Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Riley, allowed Jesse to plead guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery, with approval from Mikayla’s mother, who believed he was less culpable. Criminal defense attorney Terry Rose represented Jesse. Damion’s case is ongoing.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Despite the criminal case and Title IX findings, KUSD Superintendent Jeff Weiss has not provided a clear answer to Mikayla’s mother or KCE as to why one of the accused students is still attending school while Mikayla remains too afraid to return.
Mikayla was particularly excited to join the school’s Drama Club this year but has been unable to participate due to her fear of encountering her alleged attacker.
Community Reaction
The case has sparked outrage among parents and community members who question why KUSD has not taken stronger action. The district’s Chief Communications Officer, Tanya Ruder, released a statement emphasizing KUSD’s commitment to student safety.
Mikayla’s mother, however, remains frustrated, stating, “Kenosha Police and Principal Basley handled this incident very well. KPD has given us access to many resources. Unfortunately, KUSD is dragging their feet, and my daughter is being denied access to education.”
What’s Next?
Both accused students have appealed KUSD’s Title IX findings, but their appeals were denied. Despite this, Mikayla remains at home, and one of the boys continues to attend school daily. The district has not indicated whether it will take further action to ensure Mikayla can return to school in a safe environment.
As the legal case progresses, Mikayla’s family continues to push for accountability from the district, hoping for a resolution that allows the 10-year-old to resume her education without fear.
45 Responses
Well….the best thing to do considering Mr. Haithcock is likely underpaid at $177,000.00 a year is agree to higher property taxes and vote YES on the referendum on Feb. 18th.
KUSD
Moving Forward Together
OPERATIONAL REFERENDUM | FEBRUARY 18, 2025
At the very least you should be happy to pay a property tax increase of $313 per year so Mr. Haithcock and Mr. Weiss will feel you appreciate the fine job they are doing!
Exactly, as long as this is the kind of person who’s being supported with my tax dollars, I would vote Yes to a referendum to REDUCE funding. THIS MAN NEEDS TO BE TERMINATED FOR INCOMPETENCE or promoted to some brand new Department of something something at a base salary of minimum wage, so that he will leave voluntarily. Yes, these two Little darlings deserve an education, and I assume they will get one someday in prison, but in the meantime they should be going to school online until the legal system decides what to do with them. They have already shown enough evidence for them to not be allowed on buses or walk down a school hallway. There’s a new spirit in this country, let’s cut through the BS and apply it to this case.
They can’t have online schooling because both of their single mothers work full time and there is no one home to supervise them. Not that anyone was doing that before, which is why the 2 little shits were probably watch porn on their cell phones while at home. That’s how they got the notion to sexually assault a 10 year classmate. Shitty parents make shitty kids.
Place a couple of desks in Bill Haithcock’s office let him supervise the two little turds every day while they participate in online learning.
Considering that Mr Haithcock makes almost 2x’s what my husband madejust a couple years ago prior to retirement, and 5x’s what we both make now that we are both retired, I think he should know what forms to use and how to spell names correctly or at least ask before using incorrect spelling. Making that amount of money he should have at least that amount of intelligence.
Rewards or raises, monetary or otherwise are not given to those who make mistakes.
That said, I will vote no for the referendum.
I was molested as a child by another older child. To this day I am still affected by the trauma that it caused. This poor child that was assaulted needs all of our support and protection from those who assaulted her.
For informational purposes, I will say that my molester went on to most many more young girls and was finally caught as an adult. He was charged with only 17 counts (none from me or many others i am sure) and plea bargained down to 11. Thank God he was sent to prison.
looks like a future kusd teacher
find a military school for these boys and sentence them to there for the next 10 years
Why punish current students in military schools, sentence them to school at their own houses, online, until the legal system pronounces what needs to be done or not done.
KUSD will just move them both to a nother school in the district so they can both go ahead and do it again to someone else
Execute these monsters as well as the parents. Sick country we live in.
Absolutely. Others will think twice before trying something like this.
The parents definitely need to be looked at, the kids don’t just learn this anywhere. Lock up the kids and likely the parents.
This is absolutely appalling to me being a victim of abuse myself. I totally understand what this little girl is going through. And it makes me sick to my stomach that at the very least, these boys should be
Expelled and it should be court ordered that they have no contact with this girl Whatsoever. And these high paid KUSD administrators are absolute criminal thinking that all this is ok…this poor girl wants an education. Trust me, this girls emotional trauma is something that she will carry throughout her lifetime. I will pray for her and her family. Those boys parents ought to be investigated because for them to think this is acceptable??? Wtf?? SMH
Any one who wants to vote yes reread this story about lack of leadership. Wake up and vote NO!!
Still voting yes.
Too bad my no cancels out your yes 😘
Yeah, I bet they wouldn’t want their daughters around these boys!
Another failure by KUSD! Is anyone surprised anymore! Vote No on the referendum!
These two should be expelled not just from Nash but from KUSD as a whole !
Let these parents HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN FOR AN EDUCATION !!!
The ONLY WAY to prevent this type of behavior, school wide it to make an example of these two by forcing their parents to find a different school district to live in or have them open enroll them out of this district and deal with the consequences of travel daily for the rest of their school age life !!!
Once that happens, if that was allowed to happen, the deterrent factor will come into play for other parents district wide to see that if they allow their own undisciplined “little Johnnys” to be unruly on the bus or in school for that matter, their own children will be writing checks their parents can’t cash !!
These two MUST BE MADE EXAMPLES OF !!!!!
The victim already has to deal with this assault and its aftermath going forward for who knows how long into the future.
The best we as a community can offer her is to let her know that we refuse to tolerate this type of behavior from our young children ! And the attitude of their parents who don’t correct this type of behavior at home ! It all starts in the home !
She needs to know that the harm that was placed upon her and the resulting correct consequences that we demanded on her behalf will go a long way in preventing this kind of behavior from repeating itself in this city and school district ever again !!
And the only way that will happen is if these two are expelled !!!
Nothing Less
And don’t even start with the single parent argument !!
If you can’t hold your marriage together and provide a two parent household which gives children the best opportunities for success, then keep your f…king legs closed !!
It is my opinion that the victim’s mother, by allowing the second boy to plead to a lesser charge, made a mistake. Though not entirely her fault. She in fact should not have been given that option. The prosecutor should not have offered that.
Bullies have entourages. And by allowing the entourage boy to plead out for less than what he did doesn’t deter him in the future.
These bullies always have supporting actors.
Bullies by themselves have little power. Their power relies upon others around to not challenge them and or join up with them.
A single person bully will find it hard to consistently be the bad guy. He’s always looking behind him to make sure that nobody is coming after him. He wants somebody there that’s got his back.
Even if it’s only in intimidation factors and not actual physical support.
So by letting this Second boy off the hook, she has help perpetuate the bullying mentality of a gang of boys. The gang as a whole needs to have the same consequences as the leader. Nothing more but definitely nothing less. Guilty by association.
Sorry mom, but I disagree that you let this second kid off the hook or at least on a lesser charge.
Think about rescinding that approval
Bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
False! The boy was not let off the hook by the mother!
“Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Riley, allowed Jesse to plead guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery, with approval from Mikayla’s mother, “
Exactly!
They are being charged by the state not the mother. In the end it’s the judges decision.
Sorry, I’m ignorant, but the buses aren’t equipped with cameras?
Even if they are, they are not monitored live.
They are only able to be reviewed after the fact.
Which is better than not having them at all.
Out here in the county, some schools bought the cameras and paid the bus company to install them on the busses used for that school. But no parents can see the footage without a police investigation and the police make the request.
That’s what I was told when I asked to see video of a particular bus. I had to have a documented police reported reason to look for an incident.
Not impossible but definitely a lot of hoops to jump through.
Considering how many pedos we have in the county, maybe it’s best to limit viewing of these to investigations only.
No- need to be public, and we all deserve to know the outcome (with no name). This has gone on too long and been hidden. It is crazy the amount of incidents that are reported and it’s all hidden under age and FERPA
when I was a kid we called these sorts of love taps getting to know your bus mates. eventually, the school bus becums the bang bus. buckle up bitches, bumpy roads ahead in the non united states of israel usi.
lol troll
Guarantee the two boys have IEP’s, absolving them of any consequences or accountability. It is rampant in EVERY public school.
What needs to be done is lawmakers need to mandate that all discipline incidents, statistics, and data be made public, just like a police blotter school by school with names redacted (so it doesn’t violate FERPA, basically Hippa for education).
Parents and taxpayers have a right to know what incidents happen in the schools WE PAY FOR.
So any aspiring lawmaker or transparency advocate please promote this idea.
Parents truly have no idea the actual crazy things that go on daily in every public school.
Assembly Republicans passed a bill last session that required statistics of criminal incidents at schools to be included on state school report card ratings so the public could see how many calls to law enforcement occurred at every school for these types of crimes and more. Tell your Representative and Senator to bring it back. Nedweski, Wanggaard, and Nass were on it. McGuire, Ohnstad, and Wirch were not. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2023/related/proposals/ab53
That’s if it turns into a “crime”. So if it’s a municipal citation, not a crime. If juvenile intake does a “deferred prosecution” (95 percent of the time) it’s never “charged in court”. These are not accurate stats.
Schools need to post/release every disciplinary incident (names redacted) so everyone can see what truly goes on, and this will show you the reason the achievement gaps exist.
Where is Juvenile Court on this one? Where are they on the kid that brought the loaded gun to Indian trail recently? Failed system that protects and hides statistics and incidents while they ask us for another 100 miilion$$$
Stay on track!
There are not enough male students at that school that are willing
to stand up for their female classmate?
That’s how it was done back in my day.
The guilty parties never got out of line again.
What is a 12 year old boy doing in 5th grade. That’s a 6th grade or 7th grade middle school kid
Lop off one testicle and if it happens again, complete the process by lopping off the other testicle and penis.
Do the same to the offending students also.
and the admin who allows this to continue
Just another reason for taxpayers to vote NO on KUSD’s referendum for more money!!! These idiots need to feel the pain of these students who are being assaulted my fellow students and teachers!!! When will these over paid idiots take a stance!! Send the kid over to Hillside with all the high school troubled kids!!
If I was the Mom, I would retain a lawyer and go after the school!!! You can bet something will get done then!!!
AMEN
Ironic that haithcock, the same former principle of harborside that was obsessed with “anti-bullying,” is failing to protect a student. He would give assemblies to inform us “no one eats alone” at lunch, even if they want to. He can’t handle eating lunch alone but can handle elementary student SA? What a joke
Another awful incident where KUSD does NOTHING and the victim continues to suffer. And they continue to beg for more money. NO KUSD should have LESS money and all of the administrators who have failed children need to be fired, starting with Weiss~ This is SICK
Yes, children have the right to an education – however, those rights should be terminated the minute they CHOOSE to assault another student. Doesn’t this young lady have the right to attend school without being sexually assaulted?!?! One would think so. This is disgusting. Unfortunately, RUSD is no different. My son was inappropriately touched by another boy and I was told by the principal that be believed it was “boys being silly”. My son certainly didn’t think it was funny. There were witnesses to the assault who corroborated what happened AND my son also repeatedly telling the kid to stop. The offender had recess taken away as “punishment” and about 2-3 weeks later, he did the SAME THING to a different boy. He is still a student at the school. It took 2 students being assaulted just to get him moved to another classroom because the principal “didn’t want to disrupt him” by making him switch classes after the incident with my son. These school districts are an absolute joke and the trouble makers are coddled and catered to.