An investigative report alleges that Sun Prairie East High School principal Renee Coleman and several other employees mocked students, referring to some as “b**ch” and “r**ard,” during an August event, and that she repeatedly misgendered a teacher, referring to the teacher both by pronouns and a name that the teacher did not wish to be called.
Coleman was reassigned to the district office in October and subsequently resigned, signing a resignation agreement that would see her paid through April 7, in which she agreed not to publicly disparage the district.
Coleman said the district informed her two weeks ago that she violated the terms of her resignation agreement by speaking with Madison365. She said the district told her it would stop paying Coleman this month.
Last month, Coleman and others told Madison365 that the Sun Prairie Area School District does not adhere to its own equity statement and that it deploys a “double standard” when handling discipline with employees of color.
Coleman said she was not afforded processes such as restorative justice in her removal as principal, despite never receiving discipline for any prior conduct.
The district said Coleman “chose to violate the terms of her resignation agreement” by “speaking publicly, negatively, and inaccurately about the circumstances surrounding her departure.”
The district later released the investigative report detailing Coleman’s forced resignation in response to an open records request from Madison365.
Click here to download the report.
The district conducted two separate investigations into alleged conduct by Coleman: one related to offensive comments made during an event, and another related to misgendering a teacher.
Alleged offensive comments
The first investigation stemmed from a complaint from a district employee who claimed Coleman made inappropriate comments while in a press box at Ashley Field in Sun Prairie during an August staff convocation.
The report said Coleman referred to one student performing a dance routine allegedly saying “That bitch doesn’t know her shit and needs to sit down.” The report also claims Coleman said the students were running in a circle “like retards” and that Coleman and other staff members were making lewd comments regarding the hot weather such as one employee needing to “lift their boobs and wipe off the sweat.”
Coleman maintains she never said those things.
“I made no comment that they were a bitch or retarded,” Coleman told Madison365. “Those are two comments I don’t use. I’m a big supporter of the performances that went on at East and West. Why would I say that about kids?”
The district’s report discredited over half of the witnesses interviewed during the investigation, which was conducted by Milwaukee-based MWH Law Group.
According to both Coleman and the district’s report, there were nine employees in the press box during the convocation. The report says only four of the employees were deemed “credible” by investigators.
Coleman says the nine employees consisted of four white men and five women, some of whom were women of color and were also members of Coleman’s staff. Coleman claims the Sun Prairie Area School District is relying solely on the testimony of the four white men.
“In the district’s eyes, the four white men are credible, but the women are not credible,” Coleman said.
The report says during the interview with Coleman she did not sit up straight and look them in the eye, which investigators said made her not credible. Likewise, the district’s report says that the five women were a combination of standoffish, had selective memory, or denied that alleged things were said.
The district went as far as alleging Coleman said she could not be fired because she is Black and repeatedly inferred that she was a braggart.
“Principal Coleman stated that she could not be fired because she is Black,” the report said. “That she would not get into any trouble for her bad behavior, and that she has gotten away with bad behavior in the past.”
The report later reiterated that Coleman “bragged” about not getting in trouble because she is Black.
“I never said that and anyone who knows me knows I have always been concerned about being Black in Sun Prairie and that I could be fired,” Coleman said. “Whoever said that is clearly lying. You believed I said ‘I’m Black, I can’t be fired?’ No Black person in America would ever say that.”
Misgendering a teacher
The district also investigated complaints that Coleman engaged in discrimination against a Sun Prairie East teacher by repeatedly referring to that teacher by the wrong name and pronouns.
“Principal Coleman repeatedly misgendered an employee whom she supervised by using the incorrect name and pronouns over the course of a year despite repeated requests by the staff member and their colleagues to use the correct names and pronouns,” the school district said in a statement.
The school district currently lists the teacher by their given male name and gender identification on the district’s public faculty roster. A district spokesperson said there is no record of any complaint from the teacher about the district staff directory.
Madison365 reviewed an audio recording of Coleman’s interview with investigators about the misgendering.
Coleman repeatedly told the investigators that she was unaware of the teacher’s preferred pronouns, that the teacher didn’t initially correct her about misgendering them, and that as soon as the teacher did say something to her about it, she immediately began referring to the teacher using their preferred pronouns and names.
During the investigatory interview, the investigator repeatedly referred to the teacher as “he,” despite knowing that the teacher’s preferred pronoun is “they” – the very thing Coleman was being investigated for doing.
Coleman told investigators that she first met the teacher during their job interviews.
“During the job interviews, the teacher asked us to refer to them (by their first name),” Coleman told the investigator.
Later on during the 2023-24 school year, Coleman said she was told the teacher wanted to be known as Mr. (middle name).
Coleman said it was not until she had to confront that teacher about having a student in their classroom who is not a student at SP East, that the teacher raised concerns about how she was gendering them.
At that time, Coleman said she was told the teacher wanted to be referred to as “Teacher (middle name)” and made efforts to remember that, but was not perfect and sometimes still said “mister.”
The teacher did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The decision to separate with Coleman over it comes on the heels of several racist incidents and racial issues in the Sun Prairie School District in recent years.
Despite those, the district says it “remains steadfast” in its equity statement and that “there will be no further comment regarding this situation from members of the Board of Education or district administration.”
