If you’ve read Kenosha County Eye for any length of time, you know something about me.
I do not hesitate to call out the Kenosha Unified School District when they screw up. I don’t hesitate to question law enforcement when decisions don’t make sense. I don’t give anyone a pass because of their title.
But in this recent string of gun cases, threats, and school scares, let’s be honest about something uncomfortable:
This is not KUSD’s fault.
This is not the police department’s fault.
And pretending that it is only distracts from where the real problems are.
First, the parents.
If your child is bringing a gun to school, something is broken at home.
Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, there are tragic, complicated situations. But generally speaking, children do not wake up one morning and decide to carry a stolen Glock in their waistband without layers of failure around them.
We have too many parents who are absent — physically or emotionally. Parents who prioritize boyfriends or girlfriends over their children. Parents who are out at bars while their kids are unsupervised. Parents who are themselves cycling in and out of jail. Parents who don’t know what’s in their kid’s backpack.
That is not a school discipline issue.
That is a parenting issue.
Second, the courts.
We have created a revolving door for juveniles with guns.
Kids are charged. Charges get reduced. Cases stay in juvenile court. Hearings happen behind closed doors. Records are sealed. The public doesn’t know what consequences, if any, are imposed.
Judge Chad Kerkman (D) has been adamant about keeping many of these cases in juvenile court, shielding them from adult exposure and public scrutiny. The theory is rehabilitation.
But what are we actually seeing?
Repeat appearances. Repeat gun cases. Repeat threats.
When juveniles know they are unlikely to face serious, visible consequences, the deterrent effect disappears. And when the community is kept in the dark, accountability disappears with it.
Third, corrections.
When individuals are already on probation and continue to engage in dangerous conduct, the Department of Corrections often hesitates to revoke. That sends another signal: consequences are optional.
Layer that on top of weak follow-through in court, and you don’t have a safety system. You have a suggestion system.
And then we wonder why the same names keep coming back through the system.
There’s also a cultural shift that we don’t want to talk about.
Older generations tell stories about guns in pickup truck racks at school — and they’re right about one thing: the culture was different. Guns weren’t symbols of status. Violence wasn’t a way to build social currency. Social media wasn’t amplifying threats into spectacle.
Today, some kids treat firearms like props. And some adults treat accountability like cruelty.
We cannot normalize that.
Law enforcement, in most of these recent cases, did exactly what they’re supposed to do. They responded to tips. They investigated. They made arrests. They recovered guns. Schools initiated holds, notified parents, and coordinated with police.
What exactly are they supposed to do beyond that?
Schools cannot search every backpack every day. Police cannot predict which juvenile will post a Snapchat threat tonight. Administrators cannot parent children whose guardians refuse to.
The uncomfortable truth is this:
You cannot arrest your way out of a cultural problem.
You cannot discipline your way out of a parenting problem.
And you cannot rehabilitate your way out of a system that refuses to impose meaningful consequences.
Blaming KUSD may feel satisfying. Blaming the police may feel convenient.
But the harder truth is this crisis starts at home, moves through a courtroom, and too often exits with barely a scratch.
Until we demand better parenting, transparent and meaningful juvenile consequences, and serious follow-through from corrections, we will continue writing these same stories.
And parents will continue refreshing their phones, hoping the next alert isn’t their child’s school.
52 Responses
This is actaully the first article you have written, that i agree with. Good job Kevin!
I was going to say the same thing! I often don’t agree with some of the things you share, I respect your opinion as a journalist. This article however hits home.
Who cares wtf you agree with. When it all boils down, the truth is the truth.
Amen
Yup.
First article that i agree with. Good Job.
Perfectly said, 100% spot on!! Thank you for bringing our attention to what’s happening around us, for providing clarity when it’s most needed and for always putting the truth to everything that’s happening in Kenosha County. People can pretend they don’t know what their kids are doing, or say “they’re out of control”, etc. BUT they are STILL THEIR PARENTS! They need to step up and step into what their kids are doing. Fight to make them better humans. We can all be better. This that said, THE JUDGES OF THE KENOSHA COUNTY COURTS ARE AMONG THE WORST OF THE WORST. THEY NEED TO SHOW THESE KIDS – these want to be thugs – THAT WHAT THEY DO, WHAT THEY SAY, AND HOW THEY ACT WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES!! PERIOD! Consequences will shape people for the better!! I cannot believe how Kenosha County has made a horrible turn for the worse. We pay judges to do their jobs – not let people off the hook for whatever they’ve done so they can go out and re-offend!! VOTE THEM OUT and make Kenosha County better!!
Love “Step up and Step into” when was the last time a parent checked their students backpack, their bedroom, their cellphone? Sat down to dinner with them? Do you know your child’s friends? Their parents?
Some parents are sleeping with their kids friends!
Actually, some TEACHERS are sleeping with their kids friends!!!
You are right about everything but something else to mention is parents can not discipline there children the way our parents could discipline us. The kids now get a slap on their hand from parents and also Children know how they can play with that game also by reporting parents or threatening to turn the parents into the police for drugs (weed) ect… which more parents smoke than not. It is a vicious circle and it is going to keep getting worse.
Gun Racks. Yes, I remember them.
Mid-1970s. I rode my bicycle from near “The Spot”, to a farm on GB Road; 8500 something. A shotgun slung over my shoulder. Rabbit hunting. No one winced.
Some twenty-five years ago, a student at Central HS told friends he was pheasant hunting after school. The shotgun was secured in the trunk of his car, in the parking lot.
Someone told the SRO, and they considered it a type of Columbine incident. They made this a big deal. Feigning public safety when there was no danger. Idiots.
But the KNews had a story.
My dad taught me gun responsibility and safety. I never considered, never had the thought, of bringing one to school. Or carrying one around like I was a tough guy.
Ghetto thinking and impulse ruins every place it is introduced.
Back then guns were taken seriously as tools and not seen as accessories that make someone look tough. Maybe they need to see the carnage and mayhem they can really do to bodies, the way the “Red Asphalt” type movies made the real aftermath of car accidents stick in our heads in Driver’s Ed.
Shit parents blame everyone but themselves.
Thank you!!
Rebuttal: The System Is Not Neutral — And Pretending It Is, Is the Real Delusion
It is deeply misleading to suggest that this crisis “starts at home” as if homes exist in isolation from the systems surrounding them.
No one is arguing that parenting does not matter. It absolutely does. But to pretend that parenting operates independently from systemic forces — especially in communities of color — is not just incomplete. It is delusional.
You cannot arrest your way out of a cultural problem.
You cannot discipline your way out of a parenting problem.
And you cannot rehabilitate your way out of a system that refuses to impose meaningful consequences.
Blaming KUSD may feel satisfying. Blaming the police may feel convenient.
But the harder truth is this crisis starts at home, moves through a courtroom, and too often exits with barely a scratch.
Until we demand better parenting, transparent and meaningful juvenile consequences, and serious follow-through from corrections, we will continue writing these same stories.
And parents will continue refreshing their phones, hoping the next alert isn’t their child’s school.
ChatGPT said:
Here is a structured rebuttal you can use. It directly addresses systemic racism, institutional responsibility, and the shared role of schools and law enforcement—without excusing parental accountability.
Rebuttal: The System Is Not Neutral — And Pretending It Is, Is the Real Delusion
It is deeply misleading to suggest that this crisis “starts at home” as if homes exist in isolation from the systems surrounding them.
No one is arguing that parenting does not matter. It absolutely does. But to pretend that parenting operates independently from systemic forces — especially in communities of color — is not just incomplete. It is delusional.
You say:
“You cannot arrest your way out of a cultural problem.”
Correct. But you also cannot ignore how the system criminalizes culture, over-polices certain neighborhoods, under-invests in others, and then acts surprised at the outcome.
You say:
“You cannot discipline your way out of a parenting problem.”
Agreed. But what happens when schools suspend, expel, or refer Black children to law enforcement at disproportionate rates? What happens when “discipline” becomes removal instead of intervention? When schools push children out rather than pull families in?
You say:
“You cannot rehabilitate your way out of a system that refuses to impose meaningful consequences.”
But what if the consequences are not equally applied? What if some children are treated as “troubled youth” while others are treated as “criminal threats”? What if accountability looks different depending on race, zip code, or last name?
Blaming parents alone ignores a documented reality:
Black families are disproportionately impacted by court systems that restrict custody, child support enforcement practices that financially destabilize households, and probation systems that entangle fathers in cycles of fines and incarceration.
Schools often fail to engage parents proactively, but are quick to involve law enforcement reactively.
Police presence in schools has not consistently reduced violence, but it has increased student criminalization.
When a child brings a gun to school, that is not just a parenting failure. It is a breakdown across multiple layers:
• Family
• School climate
• Juvenile court oversight
• Community resources
• Law enforcement strategy
• Social services
To act as though the system is a passive bystander is inaccurate.
Schools decide when to escalate.
Police decide how to charge.
Prosecutors decide how to pursue.
Courts decide consequences.
Districts decide policy.
Communities decide investment.
Parents do not operate in a vacuum.
Systemic racism does not mean every individual is racist. It means the structure produces unequal outcomes — repeatedly — even when intentions vary.
The statement that this “starts at home” ignores how often the system removes fathers through incarceration, burdens families through financial penalties, or fails to provide accessible mental health support before crisis hits.
If we are serious about solutions, we must hold everyone accountable:
• Parents — for supervision and engagement.
• Schools — for equitable discipline and prevention.
• Police — for proportional response and community partnership.
• Courts — for consistent, transparent juvenile consequences.
• District leadership — for policy reform and data transparency.
You are right about one thing:
We cannot arrest our way out of this.
But we also cannot ignore how selective enforcement, racial disparities, and institutional disengagement contribute to the very instability we claim is only happening “at home.”
The harder truth is this:
When systems fail families long before a weapon enters a backpack, the crisis does not begin at the front door.
It begins where opportunity, accountability, and equity were never evenly distributed in the first place.
If we want different stories, we must confront the full picture — not just the part that feels most comfortable to blame.
Hut wrong. The foundation of a child’s behavior (barring any mental illness) is in the home and when their is chaos, dysfunction, and bad behavior in the home, the propensity of the child developing those traits grow. Take a father out of the house and their is ‘usually’ problems. Build the nuclear family, reduce SSA Title 4 D&E and stop federal monetary incentives coming into the state for Judge’s retirements, piece meal funds for every DV conviction, funding women’s shelters based on allegations and not facts, Child Support, etc. All of the programs geared to families are made to bring in revenue.
Somehow the same people that complain claiming that there are disproportionate consequences will argue against identical/mandatory minimum sentences because that would somehow come out disproportionate too……
If you come from a shitty culture, and your peers, teachers and coworkers don’t point out the faults of your culture; how are you supposed to realize you were raised to accept and glorify a life that will be unsatisfying, and likely with your hand out all the time living off the government?
As far as “systemic racism” at KUSD- Could the school board please take a simple survey?
1- Is there systemic racism inside of KUSD?
2- ask all KUSD employees to name any fellow employees who have discriminated.
3- What as a board member have you identified as discriminatory inside KUSD?
4- What steps will you take in the next 30 days to eradicate the racism in your own system?
Haha
It is kind of funny if the school board members claim that there is discrimination in their own system but can’t identify the employee or practice………Like a hospital claiming there are “bad” doctors in their system but don’t know who or where.
There’s no systemic racism in kusd. The black diets are the most coddled and not given consequences for piss poor behavior
^ students
… started the process of removing black fathers from the households in the 1950s. 75 years ago.
By giving mothers more money for each child they had without a father in the home.
This was by design. Break the black family unit and make them dependent on the government. Thus you create the democratic voter.
“Yes please! Give me more of that welfare money!”
This removes the family discipline mom and dad parenting partnerships. Again by design.
It was decades to create that system and will take generations to change it.
As it is there now are many many mixed race marriages and unions of men and women so we are less able to separate blacks and whites intentionally or non intentionally. So many children of black and white parents.
I am parent of a full white child/adult who married a mixed race adult creating three 3/4 white and 1/4 black grandchildren. You should see them ! Beautiful children all.
But even though people treat them on how they look these parents are raising them on being individuals all. Not to look at colors. Or even respond to the racism that it brings. But to rise above it.
As a society We are probably two or three more generations before we all are some sort of mixed colors.
Spot on
25 thumbs down when you see thing from your home or up bringing only. Better yet a “white perspective only” rather then study the system that has created all these problems.
Who predicted this would happen after the referdum was voted down last year? Yall are dealing with an corrupt system. School Districts are supposedly working with LE. ask me how we all knew, this was how theyre going to push the referendum ???? There isnt much of an rabbit hole. They make it quite obvious. Keep using the children, their parents fears and LE.
THERE IS NO WAY OVER 12 OF THESE INCIDENTS ARE HAPPENING AT THESE SCHOOLS over the last couple months. LE isnt doing their fuel diligence at all in regards to help protect the children. Those administrators want more raises. They dont need any raises. If anyone should be getting raises its all the staff, EXLUDING principals. Yall cant give it to them until the referdum passes. Referendums always pass. Make that School District Honest and accountable then. It just depends what the district decides how to make the referdum happen. This is how. What the school district needs to do is to sell the land they own to make the money they need, not make anymore money off you as an taxpayer. Think critically the school distrct and your LE, do not care about you. They just want more of your money
There’s a lot of truth to what you wrote, Kevin. But, in fairness, plenty of good parents do everything to show their kids the right path and they choose to deviate nonetheless. Yes, there are many parents who don’t set a proper example and don’t engage in good parenting. But it’s an easy cop out to summarily blame parents when a kid goes south. I’ve seen it far too many times where parents have exhausted everything and the kid still screws up.
I also think the courts can do better but so can prosecutors and police. It’s not enough to bring the hammer down after a gun offense at school. The message should get out loud and clear that if you do something like this you’re going to suffer the consequences. The DA, sheriff, chief of police and judges should make it clear that this is a zero tolerance situation. Billboards, press releases, speaking at school assemblies, you name it — they need to get the message out and then stick to it. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Good parent’s children sometimes interact with bad parent’s children and that is where the problems start.
The influence of the streets, peer pressure, social media and so on can undo even the best parenting. That doesn’t mean we should stop trying but we need to be realistic.
This comment section shows me that most people commenting here need to go back to school for a writing class.
Blame KUSD
Judges need to do something when parents don’t, not sent back to school with not even a slap on the wrist
How many or what percentage of arrested or jailed individuals shown on this site alone are parents? I’m saying most… great influence?
We must first recognize the epidemic because the truth has been suppressed. It’s a social experiment where parents, statistically uninformed and uneducated on the risks and failures of vaccines, immunizations and other environmental factors like fluoridated drinking water, toxic foods labeled safe, etc.
MANAGING Expectations that poisoned kids will have bad behavior is something to consider in this hostile environment where kids are further placed on medication (anti depressants/Anxiety meds are the most common denominator is most all mass school shooters histories, coupled with “counseling”, mind control ops gone as planned?)
Harris Coulter authored a book about this.
How many parents are making Informed choices to exercise their Constitutional First Amendment Rights and Protections to claim a Teligious Exemption to School Vsccines / Immunizations, by simply getting the card from the school nurse or County Health Dept and then having it Notorized?
My new book, Domestic Terrorism: USA vs Veterans and the First Amendment, Dr. KC Tennant, DC provides sufficient information and facts to help.
Too few people getting married before having children. Too many children coming from single-parent homes. Marriage first, then sex. Sex isn’t a game, a hobby, or a pastime. It’s procreation.
Too many Moms working. Make some sacrifices so that Mom can stay home and raise the children while Dad supports the family. Kids don’t need $300 sneakers and $1000 phones, computers or gaming systems. They need to parents that love them enough to be married, stay married, keep Mom at home to raise them and be available to them. When both parents prioritize career over children, children come in second place (or lower) and then the children suffer.
Keep the kids off of social media.
Know who your kids know and spend time around. Keep them away from the bad influences.
Stop trying to be your kids’ friend and realize that they need words like, “No” and “discipline.”
Step up and PARENT.
Amen!
Homeschool.
Make sure that your children are being raised to be productive, free-thinking members of society, not whatever garbage the area school systems are pumping out. Thanks to school choice requirements, choice-dollar-accepting private schools aren’t much better.
In Racine, Siena Catholic Schools are scoring just as poorly as RUSD schools. So, they’re not a solid education, nor are they solid in their Catholic Faith Formation.
Of course they are. They’re being run by Dr. Sue. She’s the same “leader” who sent KUSD on their rapid downward spiral.
The ‘strength’ of a ‘nation’ derives from the ‘integrity’ of the home.
BEST ARTICLE YOU HAVE EVER WROTE!! NOW ONLY IF THE MOPES WITH THE GUNS COULD READ….
Well said. Too many kids (especially boys) being raised by ADHD meds and SSRI’s. Then when the child misbehaves, the absent parents blame either the school or the “ADHD.”
Ma’am your child does not have ADHD, he has a lack of discipline and structure at home. Take accountability and stop making your poor parenting everyone else’s problem.
ADD and ADHD are real but not the cause of the shootings. Parents being afraid to be “the bad guy” and not requiring respectable behavior, and not managing the kids’ friend groups, are the root. I was afraid of my mom’s reaction if I went “bad”, not the cops or the courts. And it wasn’t physical pain it was disapproval and disgust I feared. That plus honestly good people as friends kept me out of trouble.
ADHD is real, but why does EVERY child in my son’s class (besides my son) have an ADHD diagnosis? Do you really believe that almost EVERY boy in America has ADHD, or is it being over diagnosed? And could the rampant use of amphetamines for children in this country be contributing to the violent behavior in schools? I think that’s a possibility, and something we should be looking at.
ADHD diagnosis in other countries are very rare, and medicating children for behavior is unusual in other countries as well.
Also autism. Half the kids in these schools have “autism” it’s such bullshit
Kevin,
Agreed. We have not held families accountable. You should look into what happens if a student has an IEP- virtually impossible to impose discipline. When schools do impose discipline parents litigate and even if the school is not in violation the district is left paying 100s of 1000s in tax payer money to attorneys. An IEP equals a get out of every consequence. All you need to do is look at the percentage of school shooters that have IEPs to understand the issue. We have taken the responsibility from parents and shifted it to society.
Yes I am an educator and can confirm this about the IEP’s. It is INCREDIBLY easy to get a child a phony diagnosis of ADHD (or ADD, ODD, AUDHD, etc). These kids then get an IEP that is basically a get out of jail free card. They cannot be punished/ disciplined properly and they have a built in excuse for every bad behavior. If you’re wondering why the bully at your kid’s school is getting away with this behavior, it’s probably because they have an IEP.
Why do schools let kids with criminal records and behavior problems attend normal school. They should have saved one school during right sizing to send them all to one place. Schools are basically ran like prisons anyways. I thought that’s what Hillcrest was for, but then I heard they only keep kids who get in trouble there for a school year, then let them back to their original school. I do blame the schools for not protecting the children they need to by knowingly letting kids with criminal records and problem kids in a regular school. Let the messed up kids bully and kill each away from my kids if that’s how they are going to act because they have a crappy family life.
Accountability has been erased, basically.
Parents don’t want to take the time to discipline their kids
because it’s way too much work.
Courts don’t want to discipline criminals because they’ve
been brainwashed into believing accountability is cruel.
Lazy parenting and suicidal empathy from judges
are cancers that will eat away at an orderly society.
There is a certain culture in our country that they have to send their kids to school to get breakfast and lunch because they can’t supply it at home but they’ve got five different kids by five different men and they’re receiving their monthly check and voting Democrat. Everything‘s OK let the police raise the kids or I should say let the prison system raise them..
Jeez lay off every social wrong that appears branding someone as a Democrat. There are lazy, trashy, dishonest people and parents of every group of humans you could pick out. If you say otherwise you are lying. Why are Dems the boogeyman? Do you know in some areas people say of neighbors “They’re Republican. But they’re nice!” So both political sides are guilty of this. Nobody, NOBODY is all bad or good.
Lordy, car WHEELS, not cheeks. Spellcheck…
Agree to some extent. Good parents, good people, and good educators do the best they can. Kudos to them. Yet, our youth can still stray and get caught up in bad situations. Do not be arrogant to think it can’t happen to you. Peace!