{"id":3498,"date":"2023-06-14T05:04:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T05:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3498"},"modified":"2023-06-15T15:25:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T15:25:15","slug":"baraboo-schools-accused-of-holding-racially-discriminatory-focus-groups-on-racism-as-a-public-health-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3498","title":{"rendered":"Baraboo Schools Accused of Holding Racially Discriminatory Focus Groups on \u2018Racism as a Public Health Issue\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/baraboo-schools-accused-of-holding-racially-discriminatory-focus-groups-on-racism-as-a-public-health-issue\/mkittle\/2023\/06\/14\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Baraboo School District held focus groups as part of a \u201cRacism as a Public Health Issue\u201d initiative that was exclusively for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) middle schoolers, offering the minority students in attendance a $100 gift card plus a pizza party.<\/p>\n

According to records<\/a> obtained by The Wisconsin Daily Star,<\/em><\/strong> the public health session was part of a $35,000 grant issued to Public Health Sauk County by Governor Tony Evers\u2019 Department of Health Services. The \u201cQualitative Data for Capacity Building and Alignment\u201d grant<\/a>\u00a0program is aimed at engaging with community members or organizations representing \u201cunderserved communities in an authentic way,\u201d according to the emails.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the exclusionary use of the grant funds is discriminatory, and it\u2019s against the law, according to Dan Lennington, deputy counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). Lennington said no one from the district denied that the sessions lacked inclusivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaraboo\u2019s decision to exclude some students from a benefit based solely on race is illegal race discrimination, pure and simple,\u201d Lennington said. \u201cRacial segregation is never appropriate \u2014 no matter what the supposed good intentions of the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

WILL sought<\/a> emails and other records related to the focus groups, which appear to have occurred on April 21. Lennington said the Milwaukee-based public interest law firm was contacted by a concerned parent who alleged the Baraboo School District, in conjunction with the health department, conducted the session at Jack Young Middle School.<\/p>\n

Only certain races participated, while other races, such as whites, were excluded, according to WILL\u2019s records request.<\/p>\n

The point person was Treemanisha Stewart, director of the Sauk County Health Department. Emails show other area school districts discussing the initiative, including the Sauk Prairie School District and the Middleton Cross Plains School District.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am following up with you to let you know that during our equity consortium meeting last week we decided to not comingle children with adults for the focus group,\u201d Stewart wrote in a Jan. 17 email<\/a> to Rainey Briggs, superintendent of Baraboo Schools and others. \u201cI would like to meet with you to discuss how we can have a focus group that is focused on minors (ages 13-17). Let me know your availability for next week or the following week to meet and discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart did not return a request for comment.<<\/p>\n

Briggs said he didn\u2019t have anything to say about the focus groups and the discrimination allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d the superintendent said.<\/p>\n

He said the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty received the requested documents and suggested that The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/em> <\/strong>\u201cfollow-up\u201d with WILL for the information.<\/p>\n

Briggs sounded incredulous that he was being contacted to discuss the \u201cRacism as a Public Health Issue\u201d sessions on the day law enforcement officials searched for a 13-year-old boy reported missing near Devil\u2019s Lake.<\/p>\n

In an April 19 email to Stewart with the subject, \u201cGift Cards for Friday,\u201d Briggs asked about how many gift cards were available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have about 15 kids coming to the session. You would drop them off to Ellen at the District office and we will get them to students,\u201d he wrote, referring to his administrative assistant Ellen Weiland.<\/p>\n

According to documents on the DHS grant program, the purpose of the grant is to understand the impact of COVID-19 on underserved communities, \u201cand collectively search for ideas and strategies to address barriers to health improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grant also aims to align decision making processes that will support and improve health outcomes for communities experiencing the disproportionate impact of health inequities,\u201d the document states.<\/p>\n

But the quest to improve \u201chealth inequities\u201d using, in this case, federal COVID relief dollars, can\u2019t employ discrimination, Lennington said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaraboo should reflect on the hard lessons of the last century, which saw immeasurable pain and trauma caused by racial segregation. We cannot keep repeating the same mistakes,\u201d the attorney said.<\/p>\n

Baraboo\u2019s grant project is part of the controversial social equity movement that has come under fire for discriminatory practices.<\/p>\n

WILL has sued the Madison Metropolitan School District on racial discrimination charges after a whistleblower provided the law firm with a partial copy of an official policy stating MMSD teachers must \u201cprioritize your African American students meeting with you first and more often.\u201d The district refused to turn over related documents, so WILL has filed a lawsuit.<\/a><\/p>\n

As The Daily Star<\/em><\/strong> reported <\/a>earlier this year, the Sun Prairie Area School District used American Family Insurance grant funds to promote programs that appear to be exclusively for black students.<\/p>\n

Documents obtained by The Star News Network<\/strong> <\/i>show Madison-based American Family Insurance<\/a> cut a check for $35,000 to fund a cross-country field trip<\/a> in October for Sun Prairie East High School students to visit Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).<\/p>\n

The district also sponsors the annual Black Excellence Achievement Makers<\/a> (B.E.A.M) awards, \u201cshining a beam\/a ray of light on our Black students\/adults.\u201d In order to receive the awards, students must be members of the district\u2019s Black Student Union.<\/a><\/p>\n

Briggs came to Baraboo after educational stints in the Madison, Sun Prairie and Middleton Cross Plains schools districts. He also runs an equity consulting firm. Meraki Consulting, LLC \u201coffers many unique services from equity institutes, professional development, mentoring, coaching, and mediation,\u201d the firm\u2019s website <\/a>states.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
\n<\/strong>Photo \u201cStudent\u201d by Julia M Cameron<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Baraboo Schools Accused of Holding Racially Discriminatory Focus Groups on \u2018Racism as a Public Health Issue\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/baraboo-schools-accused-of-holding-racially-discriminatory-focus-groups-on-racism-as-a-public-health-issue\/mkittle\/2023\/06\/14\/ The Baraboo School District held focus groups as part…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3499,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions\/3499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}