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LETTER FROM PARENT OF WISCONSIN STUDENT BELOW.
My middle schooler came home upset from school as two of his classes were interrupted for more than 1/2 the class to get the students to sign the KILL the BILL petition. All students were given a paper (my son gave me his copy) stating why they should sign the petition and then the students who were going class to class (I guess they did not have to be in class themselves) asked all the kids in the class to sign. In both classes my son refused and he was asked multiple times why he would not sign (he was the only student in both classes to say no) and he stated he supported the bill.

This is upsetting to me on several fronts. First, due to my fiscally conservative votes and statements over the past few years my children and I have been attacked in the paper and in person. While I understand that it is par for the course for me, I do not understand how and why my children are not protected from this bull y ing. In fact last year our Superintendent pulled my two children out of school for an entire week in March as he felt it was too dangerous for them to be in school. Keep in mind at the helm of the bull ying was the Principal (who left our district in June for a new job in IL). While begged to stop, the Principal continued to allow and also commit bulling of my two boys. He failed to stop the educators from bullying them as well. After a week I told the Superintendent I can not teach French nor Algebra and my boys needed to return to school. For the remainder of the year, per directive of the Superintendent, both boys had to be escorted from class to class by an administrator.

While I am way off topic, I am afraid that by refusing to sign this petition, coupled by my statements in paper from a meeting with our Legislators that I fully support the bill, and that it is exactly what is needed for education, my son will again be bullied in his school. Just last week one of the educators who had bullied my older son last year began to bully my younger son. In talking with the new Principal Thursday night he suggested I withdraw my son from Spanish class. Due to the fact that he had come home Wednesday and Thursday in tears from the actions of this educator I agreed. He is now repeating a class he had last term as there were no other classes available for him. He now will not be able to take Spanish this year, and he now has his friends, other students and other educators questioning him as to why he was removed.

Plain and simple, political agendas do not belong in the classroom.

At the high school some educators are requiring that their students write letters to the Senators regarding the bill. This is for a letter grade. Others are allowing / supporting walk outs by our students. Some have made protest signs and left them in the front of the room and told students that she can not stop them from walking out and then dropped the protest signs on the floor stating she had no idea what the signs were or how they got there but the students should feel free to use them. So much class time is spent on organizing walkouts and protests that it is disrupting the educational process.

I am certain that there is so much more going on that my boys are not verbalizing as they would rather endure than have the focus on them.

As a mom it is heartbreaking to know that in advocating for better schools it is at the price of the educational opportunities of my own children.