Wauwatosa police's response to a Nov. 19 incident at East High School has generated intense community and media scrutiny, after school administrators delayed the release of students from classes at the end of the day while officers made several arrests. In recent days, the police department released officer reports from the incident, providing greater detail on a disturbance that escalated quickly before it was contained.
School officials have insisted that by placing a “hold” on releasing students, they helped ensure the students' safety while minimizing any security threat. The newly released police reports from the incident describe a volatile confrontation between the officers and a small group of unauthorized visitors and students who said they were upset because a sibling had been bullied at the school.
“We didn’t come to fight no one. We didn’t come to do any of that. We came to get our sibling,” Kamia Dodd told Fox6 in an on-camera interview two days after the incident.
Dodd, 20, was one of three people arrested, booked and released for their role in the disturbance at Tosa East, along with a 17-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl. Dodd, the 17-year-old and a 36-year-old woman, Lanara Pipkins, were referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office on recommended misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting an officer.
Police also issued Dodd a municipal ticket alleging trespassing, and five Tosa East students received municipal disorderly conduct citations. They are all due in municipal court Dec. 17 on those citations and could face fines of up to $565.
Tosa Forward News obtained the 16 pages of police reports, which are available here.
“The involvement of adults in student conflicts on school grounds is inappropriate, unsafe, and directly undermines the secure learning environment the district is committed to maintaining,” Tosa East Principal Stephen Plank said in his Nov. 21 message to Tosa East parents and students. “Additionally, it is important that students practice respectful behavior to avoid the need for external intervention. We remain steadfast in our commitment to addressing these behavioral challenges and ensuring that all schools remain safe, respectful, and focused on the academic success and well-being of every student.”
Plank's full message is available here.
Tosa Forward News sought additional comment from the Wauwatosa School District about its response to the Nov. 19 incident and was told disciplinary measures have been pursued against the students involved. Details of that discipline have not been made public.
The district also confirmed, without elaborating, that Tosa East’s security procedures are under review because of the incident.
When asked by Tosa Forward News whether the school’s messages reassuring Tosa East parents that there was no threat to students conflicted with the police reports’ descriptions, Jessie Tuttle, director of strategic communications, emphasized that the school’s hold procedures ensured students remained safe in their classrooms.
“As a result of separating the two sides of the conflict and having all students and staff in a hold, the school's evaluation was that any imminent threat was minimized,” Tuttle said. “A hold is standard procedure when hallways must be cleared due to an internal incident; during a hold, students and staff remain in their classrooms.”
Tuttle didn’t say whether classrooms were locked, though the school’s messages indicate such a measure is a typical procedure during a hold.
The entire incident occurred during the school’s final class period, and despite the hold, students’ release at the end of the day was only delayed by five minutes. The following account is based on three police officers’ reports, Plank’s two emails to parents and other local media reporting.
‘These kids keep harassing my siblings’
Nov. 19 was a Wednesday, which is an early-release day in the Wauwatosa School District. At Tosa East, that meant students’ last class of the day was scheduled from 2:01 to 2:45 p.m. But not all Tosa East students were in class at that time.
Surveillance video referenced by the police reports indicated that at 2:13 p.m. a group of four female students had gathered near the front doors facing Milwaukee Avenue. One of them was on the phone with someone, and soon they exited the school to greet Dodd and the 17-year-old girl, who had just arrived. Police redacted the names of most of the children involved in the copies of the reports released to the public.
“Dodd presses the buzzer and is buzzed in,” the police report says without specifying who granted them access.
A minute later, one of the girls opens the door for Pipkins, who begins talking to the group. It isn’t clear why she was at the school. The girls become “argumentative” as they explain the situation to Pipkins, according to the report.
The primary police report was completed by Officer Maria Albiter, Tosa East’s school resource officer, and her report indicates her interaction with the group began at 2:19 p.m., when Assistant Principal Erica Probst asked Albiter to respond to the school’s west hallway.
“Upon my arrival in the hallway, I observed a large group of individuals who were being loud and disruptive,” Albiter wrote.
“These kids keep harassing my siblings,” Dodd told Albiter.
Albiter asked the six individuals if they were students, and they all said yes, but when Albiter checked with Assistant Principal Christopher Laurishke, he “agreed that they needed to leave the building.”
Police later determined that the 17-year-old girl was a student at Tosa East who hadn’t attended classes for nearly a month. She is identified in the reports, but Tosa Forward News is withholding her name because she is not yet an adult.
Rather than leaving the building, the 17-year-old and Dodd walked to the school’s central staircase, according to the report. “I advised them that they were not to go upstairs, and that they were to leave the building immediately,” Albiter wrote. “They went upstairs.”
While Albiter pursued them up the stairs, she also radioed for additional officers to respond.
Albiter soon located Dodd and the 17-year-old near the library along with the 14-year-old girl, identified in the report as Z.H. When the officer again advised them to leave the building, Dodd “began yelling” with profanities about “anyone touch my sister.”
Albiter warned that they would be arrested if they didn’t leave the building. They initially complied but stopped near the main exit, where Dodd again complained that students who were juniors had been bothering her siblings. Several other girls were gathered near the exit listening.
Dodd soon became combative, according to Albiter’s account, and fearing Dodd “would harm someone at that point,” the officer grabbed Dodd’s arm, “placed her in an escort hold” and “stabilized Dodd against a wall.”
Some of this confrontation was captured on cellphone video, which was publicized in Fox6’s report, though the context of the video isn’t clear. Fox6 reported that 12 squad cars responded to the school that afternoon. Some of the incident also was captured by police body cameras; the department has not yet released that video.
More officers respond, making three arrests
At 2:23 p.m., school administrators implemented the hold on classes, as was later reported to parents. Initially, Plank told parents that this was “due to a student health concern and a potential student altercation (separate incidents).”
Plank clarified in a message two days later that the hold was "to safeguard the privacy of the two students experiencing medical emergencies and to provide appropriate space to address family members … who arrived on campus, entered as visitors, and subsequently refused to comply with visitor protocols or leave the premises when directed.”
While struggling to arrest Dodd, Albiter said the others in their group began to interfere, including Pipkins, whom Albiter later determined was the mother of one of the students.
Until additional officers could respond, Albiter said she chose to de-escalate the confrontation and again asked Dodd and the others to voluntarily leave the building.
Officer Tyler Pytlik, in his report, said he received Albiter’s call for backup at 2:24 p.m. “I could not make out everything that Officer Albiter was saying due to excessive background voice but based on her tone of voice I believed she needed emergency assistance.”
When Pytlik arrived at the south entrance of the building. Albiter was forcibly escorting Dodd out.
“As I am walking the group out of the building, Dodd attempted to sit down in the vestibule,” Albiter said. She again tried to arrest Dodd and asked for Pytlik’s help arresting the 17-year-old girl.
Pytlik said he grabbed the girl’s arm and commanded her to put her hands behind her back, and when she resisted, he dropped her to the ground to arrest her, according to his report. A third officer arrived to assist with the girl’s arrest.
Albiter eventually was able to “stabilize” Dodd against a wall outside the school, handcuff her and transfer her to the custody of another officer, Officer Jeffrey Johnson, who transported her to the police department for booking while Pytlik took the 17-year-old there.
Albiter asked Laurishke if any of the other individuals should be arrested because of the disturbance, and he suggested the 14-year-old female student, Z.H., who then ran up the stairs and down the hallways, according to the report.
Albiter and another officer located the girl, handcuffed her and placed her in a squad car to be taken to the police department.
The hold on the school was lifted at 2:50 p.m., according to Plank’s initial message to parents and students, which he sent at 3:35 p.m.
Arbiter’s report says police cleared the scene at 4:11 p.m., about two hours after the incident had begun.
- David Paulsen is a Tosa East Towne resident, a Tosa East parent and editor of Tosa Forward News. He has more than 25 years of experience as a professional journalist. He can be reached at editor@tosanews.com.
