(Still From Video Surveillance)
Kenosha, Wis. – A Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD) employee has been terminated following an investigation into alleged inappropriate physical interactions with a student at Chavez Learning Station.
Makaella Toney, a Head Start employee, was placed on administrative leave on November 4, 2024, and officially terminated on November 21, 2024, after a review of surveillance footage and witness statements.
Incident Overview
The incident in question occurred on October 31, 2024, when Toney was bringing a class inside from recess. According to the investigative report, a young student resisted re-entering the building, prompting a physical exchange between the child and Toney.
Video footage reviewed by district officials allegedly shows Toney physically handling the student multiple times, including lifting her off the ground by her upper arms, carrying her over her shoulder, and setting her down in various locations. The footage reportedly captures the student resisting and struggling as Toney attempted to guide her inside.
Witness statements from fellow staff members described Toney using a “strong voice” and physically maneuvering the child in a manner that some viewed as excessive. One witness recalled Toney yelling across the room in frustration, questioning why the student was upset.
Toney’s Defense
In her written statement, Toney defended her actions, explaining that the child refused to come inside despite multiple attempts to encourage cooperation. Toney stated that she was concerned for the child’s safety due to other students playing nearby and felt the need to intervene.
“I didn’t want to be the mean person,” Toney wrote in her statement. “I wanted her to do it on her own… I gave her lots of chances.”
Toney also claimed that the child was not injured or in distress, adding that after the situation was resolved, the student later approached her voluntarily, hugged her, and expressed affection.
District’s Decision and Response
Following the investigation, KUSD Human Resources reviewed the surveillance footage and staff reports before making the decision to terminate Toney’s employment.
29 Responses
I see a lot of kids running in the street……..
Boy….that’s a close call.
The only two things that struck me as inappropriate were swinging motions she made with the child and lifting by one arm. I would think some training and formal documentation would have been the correct approach in this case…..unless there is a history of this with the staff member.
This age range is tough as the kids can be a danger to themselves and not always respond to verbal correction.
The staff member did not appear to be acting angrily and did not seem hesitant to take the physical actions in clear view of other staff and students.
KUSD had a tough call here. I am sure the Parents were out for blood, but a little Training was the right discipline. If the kid is that defiant…..I would wager that the Parents are far more physical with her in the home setting.
KUSD should have cameras like this in every classroom in the district showing what is said and seen. Education would improve in a large manner if Teachers had such level of accountability and transparency.
Some parents need to discipline their kids more so they aren’t little a**holes that require “extra attention” from daycare workers and teachers. Parent your kids so others don’t have to.
Aw the poor little girl was afraid of the group,…see how she was standing away from them before the adult dragged her to them….kids are smart,…maybe the little girl had a reason to be afraid of joining the group. There was a little girl sexually assaulted on a school bus at KUSD for goodness sake.
That and drug dealer teachers
Just another thing to investigate !!
Seems like the pendulum to act on questionable employee actions has swung so far that now they are firing without a “thorough” investigation.
Or maybe that’s why “we” don’t hear the audio.
Let’s hope Kevin gets the audio and the teachers personal file to let us know what we don’t know
Little ones have emotional issues some days.
IMO by the video alone without sound, it doesn’t appear to me she did anything to physically hurt the kid. Of course, we don’t know her demeanor or if the child was screaming, etc. without sound. I think she held the kid the way she did because she’s a bigger woman. Lifting the child by the arms only happened because the child kept lifting his/her legs up off the ground on purpose.
OK this is not bad people , i don’t think she did anything wrong here , what was she supposed to do just let the kid do what it wanted , to me appear that she was looking out for the safety of this child you can clearly see that the child is being very difficult and i think she doing great job trying to direct this child this is the problem today . you redirect your child or take a little dripline with them you are a bad parent this needs to stop, or are jails are going to be more crowed when these kids get older. There nothing wrong with correcting behavior as long as you are not harming the child, this is what needs to change not every one is a abuser. They need to apologize to this women and give her the job back . the end
Yeah, if they let a drug dealer back to teaching this is nothing .
kusd dont make a example out of this , this one is not a iisue
your issue is your teacher trying to have sex with are children !!!!!!!!!!!
That and not teaching proper grammar apparently.
KUSD, don’t make an example out of this, this one is not an issue. Your issue is your teachers trying to have sex with our children!!!!!!!!!!!
5/10 please see me after class.
Lol, OMG, this is great. I’m a grammer nut too! I can’t even read the way most people attempt to write these days.
Translation:
LOL! OMG! Tis gr8. I wurd nut to! Yo no words, peeps B dum as F dees dayz.
🤣
I’m glad everyone is saying what I was thinking. Maybe a couple times she pulled a little rougher but under the circumstances I don’t see anything over the top. This calls for training, not firing.
Seems to me, What we have here is a failure to communicate.
This child was being obstinate from the get go. This teacher / teachers aid / employee was doing everything in her power to move this child along to keep up with the group. Obviously she was also responsible for watching the other children in the group when this individual child took all her attention.
As for picking the child up, who hasn’t had a child who didn’t want to be held climb up over your shoulder in an attempt to get away ???
This child is probably a “problem child” from the first day to the last. And that is because of a home environment of letting it get away with EVERYTHING !!!!!
This is a child problem not an adult problem.
Unless the child was Physically harmed in any way I think the adult here did everything she could to not get mad or abusive.
Sound would certainly add to the investigation of this incident.
I vote for further review !!
Boo. From what I’ve seen of the KUSD on this webpage, the kids have reasons for being afraid and trying to get away. That appears to be what this child was doing. She was afraid of the group/teachers for some reason, whatever reason that was.
I thought KUSD said it was closing Chavez Learning Station. What happened to that plan?
Yea and she gets fired🤦🏾♀️ but you got a drug dealing teacher who admits to selling drugs, a kid died from some drugs she sold him.! And she’s going back to work at Washington school next week😒smh
Maybe because she is excessively overweight she lost her patience. Breathing and walking is hard enough for her. She needs to stay away from children and get healthier.
Anyone who thinks working with children is easy, especially very young children, doesn’t have a clue or has never done it !!
Some people who are not “fit” take jobs others wouldn’t dream of doing ! Sometimes because that’s the only job someone will hire them for. Discrimination for looks and “fitness” is prevalent all across our society in jobs.
Getting people to do this job is hard.
So let’s not get too hasty in this case.
Consider the child. This is not a case where the “customer” is always right
Just curious, why is the aide wearing a coat with hellfire printed all over it? What’s that all about?
A child should never be picked up by their arm. The teacher must have been trained not to do that. In watching the video, I was concerned that a teacher let children lag behind when outdoors. That is an accident waiting to happen. What is the purpose of Head Start? It’s been around for many years. Are Head Start kids really prepared for school? What are the statistics? It looks to be a free babysitting service. Then again, America is the land of the free.
Statistics show that, by third grade, there is no measurable difference whether a child went to Head Start or did not.
Every dollar spent for Head Start is basically the same as flushing it down the toilet….just another taxpayer funded government scam.
I missed it at first in the video, but the physical event between the adult and child starts way back at 0:45, or maybe even earlier, you can see over by that shed building in the background. The teacher basically drags the girl by the arm for the next 60 seconds, and at 1:50 the little girl seems to be clutching her arm like it is hurt. She looks scared.
I would be scared too, if I was being dragged somewhere I didn’t want to go by a woman with hellfire printed all over her clothes. Well, whatever, you people who downvoted don’t know. She must of done something really bad if even KUSD fired her,…and the worst I saw was in that bit of the video. The girl is clutching her arm as if in pain and clearly afraid.
Kevin you should also take a look at the director for Head Start. There are many whispers of mis management of funds regarding the cards they are supplied with. It has been used for many personal things that are all tax funded.
I was looking at the wages post that you made and the director and social worker for Head Start sure do make a substantial amount of money. It looks like the social worker got hired at KUSD in 2022 and is making $88,467/yr. The director started at KUSD in 2019 and is making $119,029/yr. Make that make sense. What a waste of my tax dollars.
Sge deserves to be fired, but where the h*ll are the other adults, not one noticed this?!