The Sun Prairie West students who first brought allegations of inappropriate conduct by Dean of Students Robert Gilkey-Meisegeier, later arrested on 13 counts of child pornography and two counts of child exploitation, were suspended for spreading rumors, according to an investigation report released Tuesday by the school district.
Additionally, those allegations were made in November 2024 – months earlier than previously known publicly.
In the wake of the investigation, the district said on its website that several staff members who had been on leave would return to work: Human Resources Director Chris Sadler, Prairie Phoenix Academy Principal Nehemirah Barrett, Youth Advocate Shelby Wampole, and Cross-Categorical Teacher Zenna Schultz will all keep their jobs. West principal Jennifer Ploeger and Director of Student Policy and School Operations Bridget Kotarak will not return to the district.
Below is a timeline of events, as described in the report and as learned in our previous reporting.
Fall 2022: Sun Prairie West opens; Robert Gilkey-Meisegeier starts work as a youth advocate and sophomore boys’ basketball coach.
2023-24 school year: Rumors of inappropriate relationships between Gilkey-Meisegeier and students begin to circulate. Dean of Students Jamie Diaz and Youth Advocate Chris Davis learn of rumors, and report them to Ploeger. Ploeger and assistant principal Ed Ford investigate some rumors, but are unable to substantiate them.
May 2024: Gilkey-Meisegeier is hired as Dean of Students, more than tripling his salary, despite lacking a teaching license.
June 13, 2024: Gilkey-Meisegeier informs district officials that he has been accepted into a program at UW-Whitewater that will lead to a physical education license.
June 14, 2024: Human Resources Director Chris Sadler submits an application to the Department of Public Instruction for a provisional license for Gilkey-Meisegeier. In the application, he attests that no other acceptable candidates for the job had a license. However, a Madison365 review found 11 applicants had teaching licenses and two also had administrators’ licenses.
November 13, 2024: Gilkey-Meisegeier disciplines a student who, who then in a FaceTime call, loudly alleges Gilkey-Meisegeier had an inappropriate relationship with an unidentified student, referred to in the investigative report as Student A. Youth advocates Shelby Wampole and Erin Kaste overhear this conversation and immediately report it to Ploeger. Ploeger directs Assistant Principal Nehemirah Barrett to suspend the student from school and inform Gilkey-Meisegeier when the discipline was doled out. The student tells Barrett that she knows there was an inappropriate relationship between Gilkey-Meisegeier and Student A, because there were text messages between Student A and Gilkey-Meisegeier. Barrett does not follow up on this claim of text messages, nor does he inform Ploeger of the alleged text messages.
April 3, 2025: An anonymous community member sends a tip through the school district website alleging that Gilkey-Meisegeier was involved in an inappropriate relationship with Student A. April 4, 2025: Director of School Operations Bridgit Kotarak receives the tip and forwards it to Ploeger and HR director Sadler. After a brief phone conversation, Ploeger and Sadler place Gilkey-Meisegeier on leave; Kotorak takes no further action, despite being the school’s Title IX coordinator.
April 7, 2025: Sadler meets with Gilkey-Meisegeier. Jamie Diaz, another dean of students, is present as Gilkey-Meisegeier’s “note taker.” Diaz would later tell investigators that there was a “disconnect” between the anonymous tip and what Sadler asked Gilkey-Meisegeier.
Sadler and Ploeger speak on the phone with Student A and Student A’s mother, both of whom deny an inappropriate relationship. Sadler does not interview anyone else. No one investigates who submitted the tip.
School Resource Officer Royse Sessums learns that Gilkey-Meisegeier has been placed on leave and asks Ploeger whether there was something he should be aware of; Ploeger says no.
April 8, 2025: Gilkey-Meisegeier returns to work.
May 29, 2025: Three female students receive a Snapchat audio message from a former West student alleging that a different student, not Student A, had engaged in sexual activity with staff members at West. The message does not mention any names but suggests involvement by Gilkey-Meisegeier. Youth Advocate Shelby Wampole and Special Education teacher Zenna Schultz report the allegations to both social services and School Resource Office Shamika Anderson. The newly identified student initially declines to confirm the allegations to Anderson. Ploeger informs Director of School Operations Kotarak, who takes no action relative to Title IX.
May 30, 2025: The newly identified student speaks with Anderson again, this time to confirm inappropriate behavior by Gilkey-Meisegeier.
A third female student approaches Youth Advocate Erin Kaste and says that she had asked Gilkey-Meisegeier to buy alcohol for her. In exchange, Gilkey-Meisegeier asked this student for inappropriate pictures of herself. This student also said that she had personally observed inappropriate text messages and pictures between Gilkey-Meisegeier and Student A.
Special Education Teacher Zenna Schultz tells Gilkey-Meisegeier about the allegations and shares the Snapchat audio with him.
June 1, 2025: Senior leadership at the District level – Assistant Superintendents. Leonard and Reichhoff, Superintendent Saron, Sadler, and Kotarak—meet via video conference. This is the first time Leonard and Saron are aware of any allegations or rumors. Gilkey-Meisegeier is placed on leave.
June 2, 2025: Gilkey-Meisegeier tells Jamie Diaz that he has been placed on leave and had his phone confiscated. He tells Diaz that he believes he was placed on leave for failure to report incidents involving a student and David Harper, who supervises the in-school suspension room. The investigation would later conclude that there was on indication of inappropriate conduct by Harper, and that Gilkey-Meisegeier’s mention of him to Diaz and possibly others was “a baseless allegation levied by Gilkey-Meisegeier to cover for the real reason he was placed on leave.”
June 9, 2025: Gilkey-Meisegeier is terminated.
July 24, 2025: Gilkey-Meisegeier is arrested and charged in state court.
August 15, 2025: The school district announces that it has hired an outside firm to conduct a thorough investigation.
September 2, 2025: Gilkey-Meisegeier is charged in federal court.
September 16, 2025: Peg Shoemaker is named interim principal at West.
January 6, 2026: The school district releases the investigative report.
The investigative report concludes that officials at both the school and district levels failed to recognize Title IX obligations to address sexual harassment, which led to insufficient investigations into allegations.
Further, investigator Samuel Hall said the district “should review the continued effectiveness of Ploeger, Sadler, Barrett, and Kotarak in leadership roles, given the demonstrated lapses in judgment in varying degrees.” He further said, “Ploeger and Kotarak were in the best positions to have properly investigated the growing allegations involving Gilkey-Meisegeier.” Ploeger and Kotarak have both been terminated.
