You all probably remember this hilarious exchange where I scolded the Wauwatosa School Board in Wisconsin for violating people’s right to speak and petition their government back in October. If you missed it, watch it. It’s hilarious. The board cut me off before my time was up, claiming that my comments were not in “alignment with the dignity of the board.” đ
At the end of the video, I comment that I could sue them for this. Indeed. I can. And so I spent the next few months pestering Robert Barnes of Barnes Law to take the case since he is a practicing lawyer in Wisconsin. Then on December 10, he wrote me back with one sentence that said, “Yes. I will take it.”
Not only is Barnes Law going to sue this board for violating my constitutional rights, but he’s going to do it for just basic expenses. All I have to come up with is $10,000, which, if you’re familiar with lawsuits, is a drop in the bucket. And since I started a GiveSendGo to crowdfund for it, it has already raised over $7,000. We are almost there. And when we get there, the ball can start rolling directly toward Wauwatosa. “In reality, it will be a lot more than ten grand,” said Barnes explaining he’s willing to dig into his own pockets to hold them accountable.
Listen to Robert Barnes make the case for why this is important at 1:38:46 in the video below. “Think about all the viral moments of people making public commentary at school boards,” said Barnes. “Loudoun County only happened because a father got really mad and tried to talk about it at a local public meeting… all of those moments only happen if they can’t preclude you from speaking.” Barnes continued to make the case that this type of action is essential. “This public participation component is essential to the court of public opinion and is critical to meaningful change.”
Would you like to see these arrogant puffed-up preening posers get taken down a notch and, more importantly, taught to respect their constituents’ rights? You can be a part of it. If you want to help us keep this school board accountable, you can donate to the Give Send Go, and if you can’t donate, you can share it with others!
For a recap of how this happened, read my Twitter thread showing the terrible things this board did in October when concerned parents came to express their anger.
A thread to explain the hilarious yet necessary lawsuit that I'm going to file against the Wauwatosa School Board and why I need your help. On October 25th I live streamed the Wauwatosa WI meeting. Many parents came out to protest the graphic sexual grooming in the curriculum. pic.twitter.com/ZsHE2aCpEU
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) December 15, 2022
In an amusing twist, it seems the Wauwatosa school board is facing another lawsuit besides mine. They were served with another complaint just recently for the same kind of behavior. Michael Meier, a school board member, filed a suit against the board of education on November 23 that alleges violations of the Open Meetings Act and constitutional rights.
This case is about the Wauwatosa School Board of Education disenfranchising an entire voting district by denial of the rights of their elected representative and obstruction of compliance with Wisconsin laws. The Wauwatosa School District is controlled by a faction of the Board. This faction makes political decisions in secret and retaliates against anyone who challenges them by silencing the public and their elected representatives.
Meier alleges that the board also altered data on a survey that showed the community was opposed to their extreme sex-education program that shows graphic depictions of genitalia to second-graders.
Most recently the faction of the Board made secret changes to the sexual education curriculum (human growth and development curriculum) development process, directing District employees to scrub previously reported survey data. The result of the scrub altered the survey results in favor of the faction’s political theories. A faction of the Board directed the changes to decision data in secrecy in the weekend prior to a Monday, August 22, 2022, vote. The faction of the Board acted in secrecy as to who was involved in directing the data change process and in secrecy as to criteria for data-removal. This secret process excluded some members of the Board and excluded the community. Enough is enough; it is time to hold this board accountable to the Open Meetings Law and by extension to hold the board accountable to its own constituents. It is time to return democratic control over the Wauwatosa School Board of Education.
Meier’s complaint also alleges that the board improperly discussed topics in secret that were not announced on a closed meeting agenda. That is highly illegal. The local Fox station investigated the board for a scandal where a board member was entertaining a contract from a company that was paying her husband.
In November 2021, FOX6 aired its first story about Wauwatosa School District’s contract with college prep program AVID. The investigation revealed administrator Kristin Bowers encouraged the AVID contract while AVID was paying her husband, Brett Bowers.
Wauwatosa clearly has a lot of problems that have been percolating for a long time. This is the perfect example of elected officials who need to be reminded that there is a law of the land, and they are accountable for it.
Here’s a link to the legal fund. I’ll be covering every step of the suit as it goes forward.
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