WAUSAU, WI — Local Parents Group, Keeping Wausau Kids Safe & Parents Informed, is a group of hundreds of local parents and community members concerned about protecting the health and safety of Wausau students, staff and community. As the highly contagious Delta variant continues to skyrocket locally, parents and community members have emailed and called the Wausau School Board and District Administrator Keith Hilts with questions and concerns. Failing to receive substantive responses or meaningful action, the group recently installed a billboard on Grand Avenue in Wausau.
In an interview with WAOW News Channel 9 on this matter that aired on October 6, 2021, Board President Pat McKee claimed “a few board members” have been “confronted at their homes.” This misleading statement requires correction.
As The New York Times reported earlier this year, past Wausau School Board members were indeed harassed for their votes regarding COVID policy. One previous board member, Beth Martin, even had a community member come to her house screaming at her to “open schools” after the past school board voted to start the 2020-2021 year virtually. This incident occurred in July 2020 and immediately after the incident, all board member addresses were removed from the website. Board member addresses remain removed from the district website to this day.
The Wausau School Board president speaks on behalf of the entire school board, per Wausau School Board Policy 143.1. This misleading statement is a misleading position by the Wausau School Board. The community deserves better.
“The bottom line is that the school board continues to play politics with our children’s lives. Yesterday, another 99 COVID cases were reported in Marathon County with a total of 1,638 active cases in the county. Rather than focus on protecting children during a public health emergency, especially those who can’t even have the protection of a vaccination yet, the school board president opted to deflect addressing the matter and point to how a past board member was threatened at her house,” said the group.
