A high school dean was charged with sex crimes against children. Parents say school failures enabled the alleged behavior.

A Wisconsin high school dean’s recent arrest on multiple charges of sex crimes against children has triggered an uproar among parents who say school leaders dismissed warning signs and failed to alert authorities to at least one credible claim.

A Wisconsin high school dean’s recent arrest on multiple charges of sex crimes against children has triggered an uproar among parents who say school leaders dismissed warning signs and failed to alert authorities to at least one credible claim.

The parents say administrators allowed a troubling pattern of predatory behavior to fester after they mishandled a tip from a senior at Sun Prairie West High School who had raised alarms about Robert Gilkey-Meisegeier — the fourth person who worked in Sun Prairie schools to be accused of sex crimes against children in the last decade. Two were sentenced within the last year.

Now, parents are calling for top leaders in the school system, which employs nearly 1,400 people, to enact meaningful change or resign as police investigate whether staff members followed state-mandated protocols to report reasonable suspicions that a child had been abused.

“Parents are very outraged right now, because if not now, when?” said Kristy Yang, whose two daughters and son attend a different high school in the Sun Prairie Area School District. “When are we going to do something about it? I don’t want to wait until it’s my kid.”

Dana Ujor, another parent, said the latest incident was the “tip of the iceberg” after a series of alarming arrests that she said signaled severe oversight issues.