The Wauwatosa School District in Wisconsin held a board meeting last night that drew protesters due to the inclusion of sexually explicit material in their curriculum. Parents showed up on both sides to tell the board what they thought of it. Outside the event was a protest that was attended by Moms For Liberty and the president of Gays Against Groomers, Jaimee Michell. One of the protesters had a sign with images from the curriculum that a local news channel refused to film, saying they could not show the images on television due to their graphic nature.
One of the local news stations in Wisconsin told Moms for Liberty they couldn't show the curriculum on television because it's too graphic. But it's fine for 2nd graders. #Grooming pic.twitter.com/vlzz7ge4zb
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) October 25, 2022
Not only are there graphic images but lessons that teach things to seven-year-olds like the vagina has “elasticity that allows a penis to fit inside.” Why a seven-year-old needs to know that is beyond imagining. The curriculum also includes gender ideology that pushes transgenderism on children. Counterprotesters showed up as well, holding “pride” flags, but when questioned by Michell, herself a lesbian woman, they admitted they were straight. It’s hard to understand why straight people are waving gay flags in support of giving explicit material to kids. Michell told them what she thought of it very plainly.
“You’re making the gay community look really bad,” Michell told them, “by supporting the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children’s bodies.” The women just stood there, mute, waving their rainbow flags.
When Michell tried to speak to the board during public comment time, the board president, Dr. Eric Jessup-Anger, tried to intimidate her by demanding she dox herself in a public meeting that was being broadcast online. Michell is a Wisconsin resident. Board members who don’t like being confronted often try to make unlawful rules to stifle speech. Jessup-Anger went a step further and tried to discredit Michell by pointing out that she does not live in the district. That information is irrelevant to public comment time. What Jessup-Anger did has been litigated in other states many times and found to be unlawful and intimidation of the citizenry by government agents.
The exchange can be seen below.
But Jessup-Anger didn’t stop there. After watching him do this to several people, I decided I should warn him that he was opening the board to liability. I had intended to just cover the meeting on my live stream but no one in the meeting seemed to know what he was doing was problematic, so I raised my hand to speak on the Zoom meeting. Jessup-Anger chastised members of the public for using the names of the school board members, another thing that puffed-up elected officials think they can demand — calling them “personal attacks.” Bad boards never object to people who use their names in a complimentary way, however, only when citizens are critical of them. But then Jessup-Anger did something really stupid after I began telling him where the board went wrong. He declared that he had the right to “cut off comments that are not in alignment with the dignity of the body,” and he silenced my microphone before my time was up.
This type of action has been declared illegal by the 6th circuit and as such has set a precedent that he would be unlikely to overcome in a lawsuit. The Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University explains:
The court ruled in Ison v. Madison Local School District Board of Education that an Ohio school board’s policy prohibiting “personally directed,” “abusive” and “antagonistic” comments violated free-speech rights under the First Amendment.
The government can’t prohibit speech purely because it disparages or offends, the court said. Doing so would be discriminating against speech on the basis of the viewpoint of the speech.
Discriminating against my speech on the basis of my viewpoint was exactly what Jessup-Anger did by cutting off my comments before my time was up. He declared my remarks about the law “inappropriate” in his subjective opinion. The person who spoke before me, however, used swear words but was not cut off because he was complimentary to the board, calling critics “batsh*t crazy.” My comments contained no profanity, just some mild scolding and warning the board about the potential liability of violating open meetings laws and the Constitution. But Jessup-Anger, with the help of Board Clerk Dr. Jenny Hoag, cut my microphone off prematurely.
This is not what democracy looks like, in case anyone was wondering.
PJ Media reached out to Jessup-Anger to ask why the board did what it did. As of publishing, we have not heard back but we will update you if he responds.
After public comment, the board voted to adopt the sexually explicit content in the curriculum despite the public outcry and scolded the critics for not coming forward a year ago when the curriculum was introduced. There is no evidence the community knew what was included in the curriculum until recently.
A montage of the evening can be seen below.
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