According to the MPS website, the district had about 8,000 staff members educating approximately 77,000 students, grades K through 12, at 160 schools in 2017. In that same year, 80 percent of MPS students were economically disadvantaged and 88 percent were minorities.

“It’s incredibly surprising to find that a huge school district doesn’t know the numbers, and more importantly that they don’t want to know,” said Frank LoMonte, senior legal fellow at the Student Press Law Center in Washington D.C.

“They should just go ahead and make the tally,” LoMonte said. “That’s the right thing to do.”

Media Milwaukee filed an open records request in January with MPS seeking the number of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment complaints or reports filed against MPS faculty and staff members from 2014 to present. In addition, the news site asked for outcomes, such as discipline. UW System universities, such as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have produced such numbers.

In the case of MPS, though, the school district said it could not produce aggregate numbers and could only fulfill the request by conducting a file-by-file review. Under Wisconsin open records law, public entities are not required to create new records in response to open records requests. However, the district could choose to calculate and provide the numbers, even if it was not legally obligated. Instead, MPS responded that it considered its letter denying the Media Milwaukee open records request for the numbers to be “our final response to your request for the above referenced records.”

Jacqueline Mann, Ph.D, Board Clerk/Director, Office of Board Governance for MPS, wrote Media Milwaukee a letter, explaining,  “We have determined that the only way to provide the requested records would be to extract information through a file by file review. A new file would then have to be created to accommodate your request. A custodian need not create a new record in response to a request.” Media Milwaukee’s open records request was addressed to Mann and MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver.

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Jill Kawala, Board Policy and Records Manager for MPS, further wrote Media Milwaukee: “We would have to go, individually, into each investigation file, then conduct an analysis to first determine if it even pertained to sexual harassment or sexual assault, and then compile a report that responded to your request.”

“We do not have a database from which we can simply generate a report of such complaints in order to provide the statistical information that you were interested in,” she wrote. “We would have to go, individually, into each investigation file, then conduct an analysis to first determine if it even pertained to sexual harassment or sexual assault, and then compile a report that responded to your request… we are not required by law to do a file-by-file search of our records or to compile a new record that responds.”

Media Milwaukee has now asked MPS for access to recent years of complaints so the news site can add them up itself. In its most recent open records request, the news site is asking MPS “to review all sexual harassment and/or sexual assault files against MPS employees/staff members (at any level) from Jan. 1, 2015 through Jan. 1, 2018.” The request is pending.

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For the past few months, Media Milwaukee student journalists Talis Shelbourne, Jennifer Rick, Miela Fetaw and others have been investigating sexual harassment and sexual assault at Wisconsin public universities. UW-Milwaukee and other UW System universities provided charts or lists of cases. UWM also provided brief descriptions, staff classification, outcome, and case type. In the past five years, dozens of professors and staff members at UWM have been accused of sexual assault and harassment. (Read the stories here.) UWM has not, however, provided access to actual complaints (Media Milwaukee is seeking 2015 to present), even though the first request for some complaints was filed by the student news site in November 2017. That request is still pending.

At least one parent would like to see the numbers. “I feel comfortable because all of my kids go to the same school and have had the same teachers,” MPS parent Monique Gonzalez said after being told of Media Milwaukee’s findings. “But if the numbers were there, I would want to look at them.”

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MPS has been unable to come up with aggregate numbers regarding open record requests in the past.  A 2016 Media Milwaukee investigation into football concussions in Wisconsin found that MPS did not track the overall number.  Media Milwaukee never received the data. (Read the story here.)

Earlier this month Media Milwaukee won the 2017-18 Open Records “Scoop of the Year” award from the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council for its investigation into sexual harassment and sexual assault at UWM. In contrast, the Wisconsin Legislature received the No Friend to Openness award. The “Opees” recognize “extraordinary achievement in the arena of open government.” (Read the story here.) The student news site was also honored by The Society of Professional Journalists and the Milwaukee Press Club for its coverage of sexual harassment and assault complaints in the UW System.

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Media Milwaukee was awarded the “Scoopee” on March 8 for its investigation into dozens of sexual harassment and assault allegations on the UWM campus. Media Milwaukee is the only university site to win an award this year. Media Milwaukee is sharing the open records award with the Wisconsin State Journal.

The awards recognize “extraordinary achievement in the arena of open government,” the Council said in a press release. Both Media Milwaukee and the Wisconsin State Journal “pushed back against official secrecy to break major stories on sexual harassment,” the Council said.

“For more than a decade, the Opees have served to remind state residents that open government is a perpetual struggle, with heroes and villains,” said council president Bill Lueders. “We need as many of the former as we can get.”

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Since last fall and into spring, UWM student journalists Talis Shelbourne and Jennifer Rick, who have published many stories to Media Milwaukee’s website, worked tirelessly to file open records requests. “This has been a really long process so it’s definitely rewarding to get positive feedback, especially from outside organizations,” Rick, who aspires to work as an investigative journalist, said. “It’s also kind of surreal to be a student and to be recognized for work that started out as a class assignment. I feel like we’ve come a long way.”

Shelbourne, who also plans a career in investigative journalism, concurs. “The most important information comes from primary sources and the only way to get those is often open records,” she said. “We want to open up the university for more transparency and prepare ourselves for future journalism careers. The cost of college is skyrocketing, and there are certain rights we earn by choosing a university and then paying to attend it. It’s the right to know who our professors are, the good and the bad.” Student journalists Miela Fetaw and Nyesha Stone also contributed to some of the site’s sexual harassment stories.

On the other hand, The Wisconsin Legislature was presented with the No Friend To Openness Award for denying open records requests, holding secret meetings, using abusive mail ballots and selectively blocking access to their social media accounts.

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is a nonpartisan group seeking to promote openness in the government. The group consists of approximately two dozen members, representing media and public interests. “Sponsoring organizations include the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, Wisconsin Associated Press, Wisconsin News Photographers and the Madison Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists,” its release notes.

The award ceremony will take place at the seventh annual Wisconsin Watchdog Awards dinner in Madison on Thursday, April 19. The event is hosted by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, and the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Six awards were given this year including:

Citizen Openness Award (“Copee”): Joe Terry, who “spent more than 100 hours looking into alleged open meetings and ethics violations by the village board.”

Media Openness Award (“Mopee”): Tim Damos, for a series of stories that promoted open government. He “exposed the intrigue behind one official’s departure and $135,000 contract buyout. He broke stories revealing that Sauk County Board leaders made false sworn statements and that the county’s former highway commissioner solicited NASCAR tickets from a contractor,” The Council wrote.

Political Openness Award (“Popee”): Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, for his executive order that required state agencies “to improve their performance on open records requests. It directs them to track and post their record response times and limits how much they can charge.”

Open Records Scoop of the Year (“Scoopie”): Wisconsin State Journal and Media Milwaukee. The Council noted that “UW-Milwaukee student journalists at Media Milwaukee unearthed dozens of allegations of harassment involving professors and other staff, shining a light on an overlooked issue.” Wisconsin State Journal reporter Molly Beck reported on complaints against lawmakers, and Nico Savidge reported on UW-Madison’s sexual harassment reporting procedures.

Whistleblower of the Year (“Whoopie”): Will Kramer, an industry risk-management and safety consultant, who helped expose “the dangers posed by industrial barrel recycling plants.”

No Friend of Openness (“Nopee”): The Wisconsin Legislature. “This year lawmakers from both parties denied requests for records of sexual harassment investigations and refused to provide electronic records in electronic form. The Republican majority also held secret meetings to hash out budget details, continued to conduct business by using abusive mail ballots and selectively blocked access to their social media accounts,” the FOIC press release says.

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