“I would say the only person that can answer that question related to did race have anything to do with this is Mr. Eddie. I will say this, though, the optics don't look good,” Superintendent Dr. Rainey Briggs tells Inside Edition.
A Wisconsin superintendent who was seen in a viral video being pushed away by a father at a high school graduation is speaking out about the incident.
Video footage of the incident shows the father rushing to the stage to prevent his daughter from shaking the superintendent’s hand after receiving her diploma. Matt Eddy, who is white, said his daughter was bullied in school and the district handled it poorly, but the superintendent who he prevented his daughter from interacting with is Black, prompting many to think the incident was racially motivated.
Superintendent Dr. Rainey Briggs tells Inside Edition that at the moment, there were several things running through his mind.
“Like this is a photographer coming up closer to get a picture, maybe of his kid or something like that, but as he descended upon me, it was kind of like, ‘Oh man, what’s, what’s going on,’” Briggs says.
In the video of the incident, Eddy says, “I don’t want her touching him.”
Briggs says seeing Eddy lunge at him made him wonder how much danger he was in.
“Does he have a weapon? Am I safe? Do I have to worry about something more,” Briggs says of the thoughts that went through his mind at the time.
Briggs could be seen in a video calmly returning to the stage.
“A part of me wanted to leave the space, but I also knew that these 250 students that were graduating, they didn't deserve this in that moment,” Briggs says.
Briggs says the only person who can say if the incident had something to do with race is Eddy himself.
“I would say the only person that can answer that question related to did race have anything to do with this is Mr. Eddy. I will say this, though, the optics don't look good,” Briggs says.
Eddy told police he was upset at how the superintendent had handled a bullying incident involving his daughter earlier in the school year.
Briggs tells Inside Edition he did not recognize Eddy during the graduation ceremony incident.
Briggs is married and the father of three girls. He says the incident has brought anxiety to his family.
“They've received phone calls, supportive phone calls, as well as phone calls that's not supportive from people around the country,” Briggs says.
Many people have expressed compassion for Eddy’s daughter, who appeared to be ashamed when she realized it was her father who was disrupting the graduation ceremony in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
“My heart goes out to her as well as this is the pinnacle of her time at Baraboo as she's walking across that stage for graduation,” Briggs says. “She did have a really shocked and disturbing look on her face.”
Eddy, who has been charged with disorderly conduct, is due in court Friday.
Briggs has been granted a temporary restraining order.
