Frederica Freyberg:

School boards across Wisconsin became the new battleground for culture war politics in the last few years heightened in the run-up to the November election. But what kind of human damage is done with public smear campaigns against everything teaching about race to allowing students and staff to use gender-affirming pronouns to policies on transgender students? We ask our next guest who’s a current college professor and former member of the Rice Lake School Board until she resigned last month. That was after a group called the Barron County Patriots raised their voice and rhetoric in the district. Abbey Fischer joins us now and thanks very much for doing so.

Abbey Fischer:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you told us that things got ugly when the pandemic hit. How so?

Abbey Fischer:

As the pandemic began, people in town began voicing their opposition to continuing to stay at home, which we understood. We wanted the students back in the buildings. But the rhetoric got loud in town. People began emailing board members frequently and they began to attend our board meetings, which we encourage it but it was loud and it was often not founded in scientific rhetoric or scientific proof rather. It was a lot of what I would say non-scientific concepts. It was language being used on a national scale that found its way to Rice Lake. And so people were anti-mask. They were anti-vaccine. They were anti-keeping students six feet away from each other. They wanted to just get back to normal when science at that point was telling us not to do so.

Frederica Freyberg:

Then this fall there was school board debate around a less inclusive policy for transgender students in Rice Lake schools, policies that you describe as previously supportive of LGBTQ students. How in your mind did that make students and staff feel, these new kind of policies?

Abbey Fischer:

The students themselves at our October 12th board meeting said that the previous policy saved their lives. They were able to be themselves in our buildings. They were able to be themselves with their instructors and with their peers as they were ready to be. The new policy, the current policy, does not allow students to use the names that they wish to or the pronouns they wish to until they have come out to their parents. As a lesbian, I know how challenging it is to come out to your own parents and to ask students to come out to their parents before they’re ready puts them at risk for potential complications at home and also potential mental health complications.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how did a group called the Barron County Patriots and their supporters respond to this issue?

Abbey Fischer:

The Patriots and others for well over a year, this started probably in September or October of 2021, were loud in their opposition to the inclusive classrooms and the inclusive curriculum that the Rice Lake School District was offering. They came to school board meetings and spoke during public appearances. They spoke horrendous statements, untrue, harmful, hurtful statements about LGBTQI+ people and they continued that up and to this policy was passed and they believe that — a lot of them seem to believe that we should not be allowing students to be themselves within the classroom.

Frederica Freyberg:

What are some of their beliefs that they expressed?

Abbey Fischer:

We heard things that transgender individuals are mentally ill. We heard that transgender individuals really don’t exist and we just all need to be comfortable with our gender. We heard many statements that being LGBTQI+ is against the Bible and that we need to spend more time in church.

Frederica Freyberg:

How did that affect you personally?

Abbey Fischer:

As a lesbian, it was hard to hear my community talked about like that. It started, again, a year prior and as a board member, we sit quietly at our table and we don’t converse with the public appearance speakers because that’s our policy. So to have to sit and listen to these untrue statements and to the harmful rhetoric was weighing on me heavily to the point where my mental health was not good. And so I chose to resign and my mental health has significantly improved without having to listen to those comments and not be able to respond.

Frederica Freyberg:

In your mind, was this an example you spoke to just a little bit earlier, but an example of national rhetoric reaching into local communities?

Abbey Fischer:

Absolutely. The language that we saw against the masks, the language we saw against the vaccines and the language we saw against LGBTQ students and curriculum absolutely is the same language that other school districts are seeing and we’re seeing it both here in Wisconsin and across the country.

Frederica Freyberg:

So earlier you said that the more supportive policies students had told you that it saved their lives. What about these new policies?

Abbey Fischer:

We don’t yet know their effects. At the October 12th board meeting when they were adopted, the district did not yet have a way to enact them. As far as I’ve heard, I don’t think they have a way to make it happen yet. What will likely happen is that students will probably not come out to their — will not feel safe expressing who they are to staff and that makes the learning environment a less supportive place, a place they don’t really want to be at. Often for LGBTQI+ individuals, school is often where people come out first as a place to try it and see what it feels like. Now we’ve taken that away from students. They have to come out at home, which is often the scariest place to come out. And that’s even with supportive parents. My parents were supportive but still, it took me a long time to come out to them. We’ve taken a place where students often explore and figure out who they are. We’ve taken that away from you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Does it strike you that it will end here on this issue?

Abbey Fischer:

Absolutely not. The Patriots and others in town have already begun to fight against the inclusive human growth and development curriculum that the Rice Lake School District offers. I don’t think that will stop. And then also they have made comments about our social studies curriculum. I think that will also continue.

Frederica Freyberg:

Abbey Fischer, we appreciate you speaking with us on this and bringing us the perspective from what is happening in Rice Lake. Thank you.

Abbey Fischer:

Thank you for the opportunity.