With so much going on both here in the United States and abroad, it’s easy to let local elections slip from our minds. But they’re as important as ever, as evidenced in a recent election in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Prior to the election, Eau Claire Area School District (ECASD) Board President Tim Nordin told Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) he received a death threat over the district’s inclusive policies.
According to Nordin, the March 2022 email contained direct threats against Nordin and his family. The anonymous sender threatened to “shoot up” the next school board meeting because it promotes a “horrific, radical transgender agenda.” The sender called themselves “Kill All Marxist Teachers.” Nordin was ultimately reelected, and in fact won the most votes, according to local outlet WEAU. One issue that several people campaigned on, however, included the conservative rallying cry of parental rights. Let’s see how that shook out below.
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First, for a fuller picture of Nordin’s situation. In terms of the email to Nordin, he told WPR he notified Eau Claire police, and they began an investigation. He said he feels confident the threat results from people misconstruing a staff development training that included a slide stressing that parents are not “entitled” to know their children’s identities and that the school’s priority is ultimately to support the student. Conservative media picked it up and ran wild with it, and Nordin feels that’s how he ended up getting such a disturbing threat.
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"For some students, in some situations, we have to understand the context of that and know that if they're not safe and they trust an adult at the school, that might be the only adult that they have to trust in their lives," Nordin told the outlet, adding that it’s essential to keep kids safe.
Three of the folks who ran but didn’t receive enough votes—Corey Cronrath, Melissa Winter, and Nicole Everson—had joined together to issue a statement saying the guideline had a “blatant disregard” for parental rights. Oh boy.
Cronrath, for example, suggested that the school’s guideline to respect students’ identities and keep them safe was a violation of parental rights.
“The school board doesn’t think parents have the right to know their children’s identity,” Cronrath said according to BluGold Media, adding that the board believes equity is “handing out resources to students based on sexual orientation and skin color.” Cronrath went on to say that this wouldn’t be equity, but rather “resource allocation.”
Per a campaign video posted to YouTube, Cronrath thanks the public school system for his opportunities to eventually join the military and have both his undergraduate degree and medical school paid for. He tells viewers he and his wife eventually moved to Eau Claire after hearing good things about the school district, but chose to pull several of his children because of downtrends in performance.
After talking about how his training as a physician equals being a good school board member (which, hm, okay) he slipped in a reference to the current board’s “perception” of not being “transparent” and “working behind the scenes.” He promised to be “available” and “present” to “stakeholders” like parents.
According to the outlet, Winter suggested the guideline was a “slippery slope” and assumes that parents do not have the best interest of their child at heart. To which I would say: That’s sometimes true! Sometimes homophobic and transphobic parents, for instance, don’t have their child’s best interest at heart, because they’re acting based on fear, hatred, or misinformation. See: Conversion therapy.
In the bigger picture of the election, incumbent Marquell Johnson was also re-elected to the school board. Stephanie Farrar was elected to the ECASD Board of Education. According to local outlet WQOW, in terms of the city council, Larry Mboga, Joshua Miller, and Charlie Johnson are three new faces elected to serve. Kate Beaton and Roderick Jones were re-elected.
Depending on where you live, it’s easy to feel that local elections in Wisconsin aren’t going to impact your life. But all elections, big and small, really do make a difference, especially for the young people who don’t yet have the right to vote in those areas. This point is especially relevant now when we see how many school boards are pushing anti-trans rhetoric and how many are trying to pull books by and about LGBTQ+ folks and people of color.
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