(Facebook.com – School Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Kenosha, Wis. — A math teacher at Indian Trail High School and Academy has once again been placed on administrative leave—this time for allegedly making racist comments in front of students, sparking renewed outrage from parents, students, and community members.
Ryan Nachtigal, a longtime math teacher in the Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD), was reportedly escorted out of his classroom on March 19, by Assistant Principal Matt St. Martin, according to multiple sources who contacted KCE. A substitute teacher has remained in his classroom since the incident.
The latest allegation follows a troubling history of prior misconduct reports involving Nachtigal, who was the subject of a KCE investigation in early 2024.
In that case, according to personnel records obtained via a public records request, Nachtigal admitted to turning to a student during a math lesson, raising his arm in a Nazi-style salute, and saying, “Heil Hitler! What is your question?” The comment visibly upset several students, one of whom—who is Jewish—needed to leave class for nearly 20 minutes to recover.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Three students submitted written statements confirming the teacher’s behavior, which Nachtigal himself acknowledged in an interview with administrators. At the time, Principal Scott Kennow placed Nachtigal on leave and recommended serious disciplinary action, writing in his report that the behavior was “offensive and derogatory,” disrupted learning, and was “in direct conflict” with the school’s mission of creating a supportive environment for all students.
Kennow urged consequences that would “send a message to our students, staff, and community that this behavior has no place in our schools.” However, district leadership opted for a less severe response.
Kevin Neir, KUSD’s Chief Human Resources Officer—who earns $150,000 annually—issued only a written warning. Nachtigal was required to undergo diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training and instructed to offer a verbal apology to his class. In the warning, Neir noted that future misconduct could result in termination, but no further action was taken.
Further complaints continued to surface.
In October 2024, a female student reported that Nachtigal had sent her to the office as a joke and then made a kissing gesture toward her. Although her mother later declined to pursue the matter formally, the student expressed discomfort with the incident. Neir ultimately cleared Nachtigal of wrongdoing, citing a lack of corroborating evidence.
Now, Nachtigal finds himself on leave again. While district officials have not confirmed the specifics of the latest allegations, sources familiar with the matter say the issue centers on racially insensitive remarks made in class.
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KUSD’s Chief Communications Officer, Tanya Ruder told KCE today “Mr. Natchigal is on leave effective 3/19/25. We cannot provide any additional information at this time as this is a personnel matter.”
(File Photo by Kevin Matheson, Kenosha County Eye)
(File Photo by Kevin Matheson, Kenosha County Eye)
Local activist Rabbi Dena Feingold, who has previously spoken out on issues of discrimination in Kenosha schools, declined to comment on this case. It appears that Nachtganl’s social media accounts have been taken down recently.
With silence from district leaders and mounting concerns from families, many are left questioning why a teacher with a documented history of inappropriate behavior remains in the classroom.
“It’s deeply upsetting,” said one parent, who asked to remain anonymous. “We tell our kids that schools are safe places—but what message are we sending when this kind of behavior is tolerated over and over again?”
As the district continues its investigation, Nachtigal’s future at Indian Trail remains unclear. For now, parents and students wait for answers—and accountability.
46 Responses
Finally!!!!! I hope he gets in serious trouble! That principal is a POS! Thank you for writing this!
It’s absolutely insane to me how many times KUSD is in the news let alone Indian trail! Then the audacity to ask for more money from taxpayers to fund these idiots.
Doesn’t surprise me. Some serious changes need to be made in education in general.
Get rid of Weiss, Neir and Ruder and KUSD has more money than referendum would have brought in!
I’d cut Weiss a little slack, I don’t think he knew the dumpster fire he was walking into in Oct 2022 when he came to KUSD
He had no problem wanting a LARGE contract.
And you wouldn’t?
The time to cut him slack passed a long time ago when we saw what his reactions were every time he discovered what he had walked into. He is obviously not the man to change what he walked into, he prefers to preserve it. He needs to go and he’s lucky he’ll be allowed to keep all the money we’ve already paid him
How in the hell does one school have this many issues?
Because its Ratchet iv heard horror stories about that school but yet they lie to critique Bradford because of the demographics
as a student that goes here trust me there are way more issues going on inside the school than one may think, the staff worries too much about iPhones and airpods than they do about their students being safe from gun violence, they say they “prioritize safty” but in reality you take your phone out to message mom and it’s “Go to OSM” and “That’s a referral, you know not to be on your phone” clearly this school needs to work on some things…
I think the beads in the beard signal trouble. Maybe I’m stereotyping or generalizing, but, at a minimum, that is a bad look.
The beard. The racist comments. The Hitler worship. It appears this guy is MAGA.
Lmao, nice try troll 😉
The troll speaks the truth.
The guy seems to be anti-Semitic. A Harris voter for sure.
Last I checked the left were the ones spray painting swastikas everywhere
It appears so. Wonder if he owns a tesla dumpster truck too?
My son was Involved glad for this article, hopefully the district hold him accountable and terminates him once and for all.
And yet, he is a foster parent and his wife is a “foster care champion” time for someone to look into how they treat their foster children.
The best part is PAID leave. It’s a vacation for bad behavior. Can’t make this shit up
Hey y’all, Woodman’s has a Tesla charging lot. Get to work leftists!
Are you promoting violence?
AOC and Bernie approve.
Sounds like something this teacher would enjoy doing.
So…we have a lot of “he said/she said” here and a teacher who may be making inappropriate comments/jokes/remarks. He is removed from his classroom immediately and sent to “thought reform camp (DEI)”. How many weeks, months and second/third/fourth chances have many of the sex offenders had? As I recall, one teacher had a freaking bed in a room off his classroom for months, Christian was brought to admin’s attention for being inappropriate with students how many times and how long did the IT guy remain employed at ITA after issues were reported? And how many OWI’s has the alkie high school English teacher had? I’d rather have my kid in the classroom with a smartass than a groomer pedophile.
Although looking at the whole picture – anyone in Kenosha who trusts their kids with KUSD is taking an unnecessary risk.
They take immediate action over an imaginary “DEI offense” and welcome the pedophiles and addicts. And they have the audacity to beg for money.
It appears Neir needs to undergo DEI training to fully understand the seriousness of this teacher’s awful behavior. Enough with slaps on wrists. That’s assuming DEI training hasn’t already been eliminated by the Trump administration.
Why do all people working in public office
always feel the need to have a drink container at
their work station and conference table?
They are merely replacing the smoking crutch
with a different vice.
This was NEVER allowed in the workplace in my more than 40
years in the private sector.
That’s what breaks and lunch are for.
Stay dehydrated, ya grumpy old goat! 🐐
Remember,nothing is funny any more.Probably bad judgement again,but guessing most of the kids get his humor.All it takes is one candy ass kid with snowflake parents to ruin someone.
Kids are such snowflakes nowadays and left wing males are all beta-males. Pathetic.
The kid had to leave the room for 20 minutes to calm down. LMAO By no means am I condoning the teacher’s behavior, but come on now.
You should see our military today, the softest ever. China could literally wipe us of the planet if they wanted to.
China can’t do a thing but copy.
I’ll bet you can’t name 1 invention that came from China except Covid. The US would demolish them if needed.
Look deeper into the facility in Wuhan and who was actually running the lab, before you give the credit for covid to China my friend. Lol
Wow this is crazy…
One glance at this clown tells you all you need to know with his stupid beaded beard and his behavior, he really thinks he’s something hip and special. We have enough special people running around our schools and School Board already, and we need to start throwing them out the windows into a large pile.
I want know what was said
he had said something about a black conductor. I was there when he said it lol.
Liberalism is a disease, and KUSD is riddled with it!
I am a student that attends Indian Trails and I have had my friends who are in that class make complaints to me several times about his behavior and one even made a report about an inappropriate gesture that was made to them. According to my friend, the teacher had made a V shape with his fingers and brought it up to his mouth, sticking his tongue out and flickering it at her…. She also made another report of how she had witnessed the teacher have lingering touches on a couple girls shoulders or elbows and then have had a conversation with those girls that have stated that they were uncomfortable. When she had met with the principal the next day with her mother after making the report about her incident with him, he listened to her story and told her that he didn’t believe her and that she was lying… so that really shows his reputation as a principal who does nothing to protect his students. So many things happen at this school that nobody reports because all it will result in is nothing and being called a liar or being told that we must have saw it wrong and it didn’t happen the way we are reporting it. It’s appalling that a principal can say he prioritizes our safety when he’s allowing these people back in our school and teaching us because there’s “low staff” or they won’t be able to find a replacement quick enough. All I hear are excuses to threaten our safety and comfortability in a place that’s supposed to be safe.
Kevin, your friend at Kenosha County Poke out my Eyeballs doesn’t believe this story. We’re these kids making it up? Why was he disciplined more than once? Is the Eyeball defending racism???
She displays evidence of severe mental illness. There is no way to decipher what she “thinks” or “knows.”
It’s sad that those with mental illness often times go into a career to try and “help” those with mental illness. I think it justifies their own mental illness and allows them to project onto someone else…
A generation of “victims”, let’s make sure nobody’s wittle feeweings are hurted. I can’t stand you sniveling liberals. What would you all do if something major happened in the world? File complaints? Keep crying? Coddle some more? You make me sick.
lol, so true.