Category: Kenosha

It is hard to imagine what the world of women’s sports would look like today without Mia Hamm, Flo Jo, Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and Wisconsin’s very own speed skater, Bonnie Blair to name just a few. Collectively, these women have inspired girls of all ages and from all walks of life to build self-confidence/esteem, perseverance, endurance, and leadership skills. 

Sadly, the future of girls’/women’s sports in America is in serious jeopardy. The push by the transgender community to play sports as the gender with which they identify is a troubling trend, and it has infected Wisconsin. 

Men in Women’s Sports

Last year, the Monona Grove Board of Education and the Madison Metropolitan School Board passed a resolution supporting biological boys competing in girls’ sports. 

In fact, the Kenosha Unified School District claims fame to Wisconsin’s transgender precedent setting court case where a student challenged the district’s policies that required students to use the restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms that corresponded to their biological sex. 

The school district ultimately caved to allow a biological girl access to boys’ bathrooms and locker rooms and vice versa and even agreed to pay $800,000 of taxpayers’ dollars to the young woman and her lawyers. More importantly, the District changed its policy and now allows students to use whichever restrooms, locker rooms, etc., they “identify” with.

High School Boys vs Female Olympians

It’s basic biology: men have greater strength and speed than women. These advantages are developed in men through puberty and are permanent: larger hearts and lungs, more oxygenated blood, more fast-twitch muscle fiber, greater upper-body muscle mass, greater lower body muscle mass, and greater bone density. These advantages cannot be negated even if a man takes estrogen and reduces the testosterone levels in his body.

One of the best illustrations of this can be found at Boysvswomen.com where they compare the records of male high school athletes (from a 2016 national track and field competition) against those of female Olympians (from the 2016 Olympics) in the 100-meter, the 200-meter, the 400-meter and the 800-meter races. High school male runners dominate the female Olympians’ times, claiming all the top spots. Most notably, the site points out that “none of the women’s finals performances met the qualifying time to enter the boy’s competition.”

Yet here we are finding ourselves bullied into ignoring the obvious truths right in front of us. 

Title IX

In the U.S., K-12 and college athletics enjoy broad ranging community and cultural support. The benefits of athletic opportunities to America’s youth are universally touted. Since title IX first became law in 1972, all educational institutions receiving federal funds reaching from elementary to higher learning must provide equal opportunities for men’s and women’s sports. Many touted this major federal legislation as a major victory for women’s athletics and female participation in athletics has indeed grown immensely. In 1972, only 1 in 27 high school girls participated in high school sports; that number has since risen to being more than 1 in 5.

50 years after Title IX, women are again losing athletic opportunities to men, this time inside women’s and girls’ sports themselves. 

Men Dominating Women’s Sports

There is a growing number of biological males competing in women’s sports and dominating the sport. Despite the loss of prestige, playing time, scholarships, and the increased risk of injury suffered by America’s girls, those who deny science are doubling down on the demands that women move over to allow men in their sport, and even their locker room. Biden’s secretary of education even made the move to go beyond SCOTUS precedent and required that Title IX be expanded to include “gender identity” despite no current provision existing within the law.

We simply cannot deny the reality of biological sex; the science is indeed in. Depending on the sport, men have an advantage of 10%-50% over women. Men and boys on average are bigger and taller with longer arms and legs, have higher bone density, greater stamina, more strength, and a higher injury resistance. 

The net result is that when similarly trained men and women go head-to-head in athletic competitions, men hold a distinct biological advantage. This advantage still persists after testosterone suppression, such as the type required by the NCAA. For instance, even after 2 full years of testosterone suppression, studies have shown that biological men still run an average of 12% faster than women. 

When split seconds count, 12% is much greater than the margin of victory.

Saving Women’s Sports

The Wisconsin legislature has introduced two sets of bills aimed at saving women’s sports, Governor Tony Evers has promised to veto them should they ever get to his desk.

The best line of defense rests with you voicing your concerns to your local school board and exercising your right to vote at the ballot box on Tuesday, April 5^th.

Image Credit: Photo by Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash

Schools all across Wisconsin have been forced into virtual instruction for the better part of two years during the COVID-19 crisis. While the teachers’ union and the Kenosha Unified School Board were busy keeping schools closed, our children were struggling—mentally, physically, and academically.

Unfortunately, the struggle for kids is far from over. 

Negative Impact of Virtual Learning

Virtual learning had far greater negative impacts on our youth than COVID 19 infections did: 

• Teen suicide rates surged during the lockdowns
• A significant decline in mental or emotional health 
• A significant decrease in physical activity
• Hindered social development
• Significant decrease of proficiency scores in English and Math, particularly in poor and rural areas of Wisconsin
• The CDC quietly moved 1/3 of developmental milestones for infants and toddlers to older ages. 

A recent Pew Research poll showed that 67% of parents believe that the possibility that students will fall behind academically without in-person instruction should be given “a lot” of consideration. 

Public education is (or at least should be) a partnership between the parents and the schools. Moreover, good public education is important to the overall health of a community.

Concerned Parents

These parents’ concerns are indeed well-founded. It’s already become abundantly clear that students who were kept home the most, fared the worst. Milwaukee and Madison have led the state in denying in-person instruction to their students, and it follows that they also lead the state in test score decline. 

In Wisconsin’s standardized Forward test, Wisconsin’s students have scored an average of 16.4% lower proficiency in English and 20.6% lower in math for 2021 than in the pre-lockdown 2019 scores. While this number is bad enough to tell us that the education establishment has lost ground due to a lack of in-person learning, the shockingly low scores of Madison and Milwaukee underscore the moral of the story. 

In Milwaukee, the test score dropped by over 60% and over 73% for English and math respectively. Madison had declines of 56% and 41% in just the two years between tests.

According to a new report released by the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF, this generation of students stands to lose $17 trillion in lifetime earnings (present value) as a result of this virus-related school closures. This new projection is far more severe than originally thought.

Fixing Education

The loss of education over the last 21 months is morally unacceptable.  Wisconsin taxpayers spend a great deal of money on public education, because we inherently believe young minds are worth it. 

It’s time for our public schools to step up recovery plans that will at least begin to make up for the loss of education. The best line of defense rests with you voicing your concerns to your local school board and exercising your right to vote at the ballot box on Tuesday, April 5^th.

Image Credit: Image by Lucas Law on Unsplash

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a sociological doctrine dating back to the 1930s. It was originally created by a group of Marxist theorists who sought to expand the concept of “class warfare” to racial relations. Over the last 5 years, Washington activists have begun pushing to “fix racism” by teaching CRT to children.

This move has not been without controversy. Critical Race Theory, after all, relies on dividing society into “oppressed” and “oppressor” groups based on their skin color. In this way, it doesn’t eliminate the evils of racism – it just replaces it with a new form of discrimination.

Is Critical Race Theory Coming to Kenosha Classrooms?

In Kenosha and across Wisconsin, there is no official acknowledgment about Critical Race Theory in local school curriculums. However, Kenosha teachers have reported that CRT training is coming, and it’s being listed as mandatory.

This has been done silently and discreetly. First, Critical Race Theory appeared as part of standard “sensitivity training” about Diversity and Inclusion. Neutral contents about treating everyone fairly were replaced by reflections about oppression, privilege, and “the inherent evils of capitalism.”

Eventually, it started dripping into High School history lessons. At this stage, beloved figures such as our Founding Fathers were “re-interpreted” as defenders of a “racist nation.”

Now, science and humanities exams are tweaked to “right the wrongs of slavery” and ensure equality of outcomes.

And Where Were Parents During This?

At home or at work, confident that schools were sanctuaries of learning–and without the opportunity to see what is happening inside the classroom.

Parents are expected to be ever-vigilant about their kids’ education and react when they notice something they don’t like. But because of the way lessons plans are structured, by the time a questionable worksheet finds its way home, kids have been subjected to months of CRT-based content.

Shouldn’t parents be asked first when it comes to including politicized ideology as part of their education?

Local Elections: The Best Chance to Intervene

Across the country, concerned parents are stepping up to defend their right to shape their children’s moral fiber without government intervention. As a result, many local and state policy proposals have sought to combat the inclusion of CRT, Marxism, and other biased content in K-12 schools.

However, on April 5^th, the citizens of Kenosha will get a golden opportunity to protect schools from undue politicization.  The federal push for CRT can be combated at a local level; we just need citizens to take an active role and vote in the upcoming County, City, and School Board elections.

Commit to vote in the next local election and ensure any decisions on CRT are made by Kenosha families, not distant lobbyists.

In the 2017/2018 school year, a biological female student in a Kenosha high school began identifying as a boy. She wanted to use the boys’ restrooms, locker rooms, etc. Kenosha Unified School District’s policy then was that students used the restroom and locker room facilities that corresponded to their biological sex. This student sued the School District. Eventually, in 2020 the District decided to settle the matter out of court and agreed to 2 actions: 1) pay the girl and her attorneys $800,000 and 2) change the District’s policy so that students can use the restrooms, locker rooms, etc., of the gender they “identify” with. 

Kenosha joined many school districts around the state with this SOGI (Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity) policy. A number of local municipalities in Wisconsin have also passed SOGI ordinances related to housing, employment, and public accommodations. 

These ordinances claim to protect people of different gender identities from discrimination. But what do they say? And what are your chances of accidentally breaking one?

What Are SOGI Ordinances?

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Ordinances redefine terms such as “sex” or “gender” to cater to the transgender, gender-fluid, and “queer” communities. Their goal is to ensure that people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community can be surrounded by comforting and safe environments.

So far, so good – right?

The problem starts with the way these principles are enforced. Ideals such as tolerance and acceptance are hard to define and almost impossible to translate into legislation. As a result, many of these regulations grant special privileges and rights and perceive discrimination behind reasonable, everyday actions.

Enforcing Inclusion: How SOGI Ordinances Are Playing Out in Kenosha

The first SOGI rules in Kenosha came from its School Board. In 2020, the Kenosha School District sought to ensure that students identified as “transgender” had equal access to single-sex spaces, such as restrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams–based not on their biological sex, but on the gender they “identify” with.

By that time, many school districts around Kenosha had already begun addressing this issue. One solution a number of districts have arrived at is to make single-occupancy restrooms available to all students and increased funding for non-physical sports teams.

However, SOGI ordinances went a step further. First, they enshrined the right of each student to request, via a simple letter, to be treated as a member of the opposite gender without any parental involvement.

Second, once a student identified as a specific gender, it became mandatory to automatically treat them as belonging to that gender, with no exceptions. This includes:

• Biologically-male students showering with female classmates
• Biologically-female students risking severe injuries as part of male wrestling team
• Disciplinary procedures for students who express reticence or discomfort at any of these circumstances.

What Can You Do About SOGI Policies/Ordinances?

The SOGI policies enacted in Kenosha School District are a classic example of what happens when authorities try to reshape society in a vacuum. The best way to ensure everyone’s rights are respected without imposing beliefs or harming the privacy of others is to place these decisions in the hands of those directly affected by them.

Currently, the City of Kenosha and Kenosha County do not have SOGI ordinances. But that doesn’t mean they have not considered them or that they will not do so in the future. 

The upcoming local elections on April 5^th, for example, provide a suitable medium to take back this power. By making your voice heard in the County Board, City Council and School Board, you can bring back sanity to these top-down ordinances.

Image Credit: Photo by No Revisions on Unsplash

After two years since the COVID-19 crisis began, Kenosha residents continue experiencing a tug of war between public health and personal freedoms. Most of the world is progressively opening up, but there is still a lot of wiggle room involved: how fast should we return to complete normalcy? And, should another spike of cases happen, what should we allow the government to do?

Below is a quick round-up of the latest developments in Public Health around Kenosha.

Mask Mandates at School Overturned, but Still “Recommended”

In late February, the Kenosha Unified School Board finally decided, through a unanimous vote, to end its mask mandate across all local schools. Starting March 28^th, the use of masks will be optional and voluntary for parents, students, and teachers alike.

This decision was made after all seven board members reached out to parents and stakeholders and eagerly sought the opinions of those directly affected by mandatory mask-wearing. You can read more about the efforts of organized parents here.

In the end, they decided to open the way for personal choices and responsibility: masks are still “recommended and encouraged” but will no longer be mandatory when attending school.

Kenosha County Public Health will Rationalize Its Contact-Tracing Efforts

Beginning in March, Public Health officials in Kenosha County will stop contacting and ordering the isolation of healthy, low-risk citizens who test positive for COVID-19. Lengthy contact tracing interviews will be discarded, and the office will focus on helping people who are genuinely at high risk of complications.

This measure comes in the wake of new recommendations issued by the Association of State and Territorial Health Offices. It is also in keeping with the desires of many Kenosha residents, who resented the invasive contact tracing process.

But the track record of local public health officials is such that it’s highly likely they will find some reason to reinstate the contact-tracing and isolation policy and will offer Kenosha citizens a flimsy rationalization for their actions.

Courts Curb the Power of Health Officials in Wisconsin

In nearby Walworth County, Wisconsin, the County Board has chosen to overrule Governor Evers’ orders to increase health officials’ power. Now, public health measures cannot be used to control the movement of the population or order business closures.

Residents of Walworth County were spurred into action after Gov. Evers’s public health mandates “gave police powers to health officials.” Local citizens saw the governor’s move as an additional power grab.

The decision to force students to wear masks or determine who can shut down a business – and under what grounds – are major ones. They can shape the lives of citizens radically, and therefore, they should be left to the citizens being affected. 

Local elections are where concerned residents get to say what they want and to ensure their priorities and values are respected. Have you registered for April 5^th yet?

Image Credit: Photo by Tai S Captures on Unsplash

The usually friendly community of Kenosha jumped into nationwide headlines in August 2020, following a string of violent race riots that brought the city to a halt for over a week. These events became one of the biggest highlights of 2020’s Black Lives Matter across the United States.

In Kenosha, however, many residents are still struggling to rebuild and recover what was lost during those chaotic days.

The Gunpowder and the Spark

On August 23^rd, 2020, members of the Kenosha Police Department shot Jacob Blake while attempting to arrest him for domestic violence. He was 29 years old and had a warrant for his arrest due to third-degree sexual assault and criminal trespass. After the incident, Blake was taken to the hospital. He survived but was left partially paralyzed.

Although Blake had violently resisted arrest, this incident happened on the heels of other highly-publicized incidents where police shot people of African American descent. As a result, many citizens of Kenosha chose to protest peacefully, while others took the opportunity to set off more violent forms of unrest.

The Riots

Between August 23 and September 1, repeated demonstrations led to nightly clashes with the police. Most residents likely remember those days very well. It’s not every year a small, middle-income city such as Kenosha has to call the National Guard.

The Aftermath

The “Kenosha unrest” left two people dead, plus three others (including a firefighter) seriously injured. According to the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, property damages amounted to $50 Million.

What did this represent for Kenosha families? In many cases, lasting physical imprints remained, and livelihoods were lost. According to Evita Duffy from The Federalist, 40 local family-owned businesses were “closed for good” due to the riots. 

Many of these businesses were already struggling due to COVID-19 lockdowns–but after the climate of fear spread around the city, they found it even harder to recover clients.

Apologies are Still pending; Healing is “in Process.”

Many citizens of Kenosha are still dealing with lingering symptoms of PTSD. In addition, others resent the lack of concern that the state and federal governments showed for the city. 

Both Governor Evers and President (then candidate) Joe Biden made incendiary comments about Kenosha’s police officers and emboldened the rioters. Biden and other Democrats were attempting to ride the wave of radical social change that their voters demanded and sacrificed a small town in the process. 

It may have felt as if only Kenosha people cared about Kenosha for some residents. This is a slightly bitter but essential reminder to hold in the wake of the upcoming April 5^th local elections.

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