The head of security at Verona schools will keep his job after a May 18 altercation with a student drew scrutiny and prompted administration to recommend he be terminated.
After a hearing that lasted over six hours, the school board deliberated for about 45 minutes before announcing no one would make a motion to accept the administration’s recommendation to terminate Corey Saffold, effectively meaning the board was unanimous in its decision to keep Saffold in his position.
Saffold, who joined the district as head of security in 2019 after 10 years as a Madison police officer, has been on unpaid leave since May 18, when he struck a student in the face with his elbow and restrained the student with handcuffs. Video shown at the hearing and witness testimony indicated that the student had been wandering halls for more than two hours making multiple verbal threats toward staff when Saffold was called in to assist. Saffold was escorting the student to the office when the student entered a classroom and took an iPad from a desk, then returned to the hallway.
What happened in the classroom was not captured on surveillance video, but Saffold said the student directly threatened him in the classroom and Saffold took a step back away from the student in an attempt to de-escalate.
“I want to be clear that I believe every word he said,” Saffold said in his hearing testimony.
“Every time he said he would whip my ass, I believed him.”
The student then returned to the hallway with Saffold following several feet behind. The student then stopped and turned toward Saffold, stepping toward him and initiating contact, chest-to-chest. While associate principal Michael Murphy attempted to intervene, saying the student’s name and reaching a hand between the student and Saffold, the student leaned his face closer to Saffold’s. At that point, Saffold said, he feared that he would be struck by the student, who is larger than Saffold. Saffold then lifted his arm, striking the student in the face with his forearm and elbow, causing the student to swing and try to punch Saffold. Saffold and another member of the security team were able to subdue the student, though the student punched Saffold’s face and bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood.
This videos below contain profanity and violence.
Here is the surveillance video obtained in an open records request from Verona Area School District.
Here is Saffold’s explanation of the video at his hearing.
Saffold’s attorney, Robert Kasieta, noted that the other people seen in the video were not interviewed during the human resources investigation.
Verona Area School District Superintendent Dr. Tremayne Clardy said he hadn’t known until the hearing that the student initiated physical contact, but still recommended terminatng Saffold’s employment.
“You can’t elbow strike a student,” he said. “That can never happen.” He also said he hadn’t received assurances from Saffold that it wouldn’t happen again, despite anything like this incident happening during Saffold’s first four years with the district.
Saffold noted that his counterparts in other districts don’t typically interact with students, and it’s unusual for a director of security at a larger school district to be the one called upon when situations escalate.
“I take all the risk. The district takes none,” he said. “They get to wave the flag (and say) ‘we have no police in schools, look how good we’re doing … They get to wave the flag that they’re stopping the school to prison pipeline. I afford them that. I take all the risk.”
The school district ended its contract with the Verona Police Department last year, as Madison schools did as well.
During the board’s closed-session deliberations, Saffold could be seen speaking with Clardy for several minutes.
“I have a great deal of respect for him,” Saffold said after the decision was announced. He declined to say what the two discussed except to say “we were having a heart-to-heart.”
About 75 people turned out to witness the hearing and support Saffold, and were repeatedly asked not to interrupt proceedings.
“His job is to protect people. He needs to feel protected,” said Rev. Dr. Alex Gee, the pastor of the church Saffold attends and one of those attending in support of Saffold. “A lot of the people that are on the front line, taking care of these kids, look like Mr. Saffold, Black and brown folks. And then when they try to do something that protects the school … then it feels like he gets thrown under the bus.”
Many wore decals with the slogan “I want safe schools” or the initials CS.
Board member John Porco read a statement on behalf of the board after they returned from deliberations at about 2 am.
“We do not condone the actions Corey took as they do not live up to our standards or policies,” he said. “Based upon Corey’s history and exemplary service to the district, we expect that you will work cooperatively with the administration to redesign the role to better serve as director of security and crisis management and director.”
Saffold still faces a charge of felony child abuse that could carry a fine of up to $10,000 and a prison sentence of six years. A status conference in the Dane County Circuit Court is scheduled for July 17.
