Bullied, and Misled - West Bend Families Were Duped

The citizens of West Bend and the school district board members have been misled.

Recommendations from two law firms regarding the legal battle against school sponsorship of a Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) were biased and heavily weighted in favor of the GSA. The District may as well have hired local drum-beater Waring Fincke. Have we forgotten that 1.26 million people in the state of Wisconsin cast their vote to secure one man/one woman marriage? The message across the state is clear - the majority of our state supports this decision, the majority of Washington County supports it as well, and the majority of our school district should be represented accordingly. A mere 30 students who are being led by a local sex therapist and an openly gay high school teacher do not trump the wishes of the majority. The GSA's rabid attorney who uses his credentials to bully those whom he disagrees with appears to hold himself in high esteem in our city. He can be seen organizing anti-Grothman events, leading high school and college kids along our streets like the pied piper, bullhorn in hand, instigating, intimidating, and, in the opinion of many, verbally abusing citizens through word and deed.

Most recently, the West Bend School District board members rescinded a vote taken that maintained the GSA as an after-school club. The rescind of this vote was brought forward due to the scare tactics of Fincke and his GLSEN attorney friend. The revote came on the heels of a so-called recommendation from two law firms that clearly sided with Fincke; both were chosen by Supt. Ted Neitzke, and both were approved by board president, Randy Marquardt.

On the outside, the law firms appear harmless. The first opinion was obtained from Mary Hubacher who is already on staff with the District as our paid legal defense. Hubacher has given the appearance of bias in past issues regarding traditional family and liberal sexual issues. The second recommendation came from Milwaukee law firm Quarles and Brady, who openly state their support and advocacy for homosexual issues on their website.

How then, one might ask, could our school board have obtained the necessary supportive information from an attorney who would represent the majority of the board, and the taxpayers of West Bend? Indeed. In obtaining legal advice from Quarles and Brady, Neitzke showed his heavy hand towards solidifying the inclusion of the GSA in our school-sponsored clubs. Without digging into the background of this firm that strongly advocates homosexuality, one would most likely never know this was the case. It seems our District was not given the opportunity to receive legal advice from a law firm that supported their initial decision. They were simply handed the statements from two apparent pro-homosexual, anti-family entities and expected to gulp it down.

A rescind of this vote should be called for. A revote should be insisted upon. Our school district should insist on equal representation and supportive legal advice for the taxpayers and parents of our West Bend School District. Though the cost factor can also lead to a fiscal intimidation factor, let's remember that once we allow the bully in, more will follow.

GSA Roots go Deeeeeeeeep -----to Bullying and Sex

Well said.

DO ACTIVIST GROUPS BELONG IN OUR SCHOOLS?

There has been recent movement in the West Bend School District to allow the Gay/Straight Alliance school club status. (current clubs and school policy are listed below)

Since schools are part of our community, and citizens are compelled to fund them for educating the children of the community, I thought I’d do some research to find out more about the group that wants to be a school sanctioned club. Their website (found by doing a Google.com search) was the most logical place to begin. I was looking for compelling evidence that this group fits in with the educational goals of the local schools.

If the GSA is granted club status, they will have daily access to all children attending the schools. In the meeting on Monday May 9^th they said they were a “support group” and that they did not support bullying in the schools.

Let’s take a look at what I found.

WEBSITE FACTS:

They call themselves an “activist group”. They want to “transform schools”.

http://www.gsanetwork.org/what-we-do/transforming-schools

This is from Wikipedia and explains what contemporary activism is:

Activism consists of intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, orenvironmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such asboycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, both sit-ins and hunger strikes.Some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than persuade governments to change laws. Thecooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically.

In what ways do they intend to “change your school, transform your school?”

Listed are: activities, books, more about their “activist group”.

http://www.gsanetwork.org/resources/posters-movies-and-more/recommended-books

(some of the listed books are the highly controversial books recently opposed locally)

Several books are recommended on the GSA website. This is just one example of the offerings this school club recommends to kids.

From the report, The Legal Liability Associated with Homosexuality Education in Public Schools: http://www.ccv.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Legal_Liability_of_Homosexuality_Education1.pdf

the novel Rainbow Boys, three 17-year-old boys explore their homosexual attractions. Frequent themes include obtaining pornographic magazines18 and movies19, as well as graphic descriptions of masturbation20. The book features a scene where one of the teen boys has anal intercourse without a condom with a 29-year-old man he has just met via the Internet.

One event listed on their website is the annual “Pride March”.

http://www.gsanetwork.org/pride

READ MORE HERE

GSA DENIED Co-Curricular Status at West Bend High Schools

In short, there were about 100 people or so (I didn't count, but it may have been more) after all the sports awards were given out and that large group of people left. Atty. Patrykus gave a very unconvincing speech about how the District is going to get sued and THEY will be getting money in THEIR pockets if the GSA is denied co-curricular, taxpayer-funded status. Both the Mom and Dad of the GSA's president spoke to the board in favor. Then I spoke. Then Atty. Waring Fincke did his spiel and threw his weight around with the "you're going to get sued if you don't approve this" speech.

Next, someone had asked that Dave Weigand recuse himself from the vote (I think it was Patrykus, but not sure) as he already had an established opinion. Without going into all the details, that was nixed (to their credit) by all the board members EXCEPT FOR TODD MILLER. All members (with the exception of the absent Williams) voted tonight.

Conversation across the board was:

Kris Beaver is terrified of the bullies and basically stated so. He was going to vote to approve simply based on fear of Fincke and Patrykus's legal threats.

Randy Parks has a son who is in the GSA and stated in the work session that he was in favor of the club being co-curricular. If there was anyone who should have recused himself, this would have been the one to ask if that was the criteria we are using.

Todd Miller acted like he had an axe to grind all night. He voted for the club because, well, because.

Board member Randy Marquardt made it clear that he did not appreciate being told by the attorneys that they had to approve this club or they would get sued. He did not feel they were in violation of any statutes or laws, and did not agree with the attorneys. He also said that that curricular and policy ties were a stretch to make them fit to the GSA, and he did not agree that the GSA fit the policy for a co-curricular. With that said, the three conservative board members did what their constituents were confident they would do. They were represented to the fullest with the NAY vote for a school-sponsored GSA.

Much appreciation to Randy Marquardt, Tim Stepanski and Dave Weigand who stood firm in their representation of our conservative school district.

To God be the Glory.