SOUTH WAYNE —At an emotionally charged Black Hawk School Board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 14, several parents, and family objected to the way administration has handled serious bullying accusations and were allowed to voice their outrage towards Principal Cory Milz and what appears to be a boys-club mentality.

During the public comments portion of the regular school board meeting, several residents were allowed to speak. Board President Kerry Holland asked for any public comment with multiple respondents. Holland noted that if anyone started dropping names and getting personal, the discussion would move to executive session and just the immediate parties involved would be allowed in the session. 

Tim McGuire was the first to stand and introduced himself as a friend of the family McGuire admitted to writing and sending a letter to the board that outlined the complaints. The letter was originally sent anonymously. 

Among other claims, the letter stated that a special needs child was voted on the homecoming court as a prank, along with steady bullying in person and on Snapchat, it culminated when a student instructed the child “to go kill herself.” The child’s step-mother, who works for the school district, felt the administration wasn’t taking the matter seriously, so she confronted the students’ involved. Administration then decided to put the step-mother on non-paid administrative leave.

Board President Kerry Holland reconfirmed that McGuire wrote the letter and then asked, “Why did you send the letter anonymously?”

McGuire responded, “What difference does that make, aren’t you worried about what it says in the letter?” With all the stories I’m hearing, I’m wondering if the school condones this activity or nobody cares. Someone needs to be doing their job. You should be protecting our kids.”

Holland said, “It’s my understanding that it’s under investigation and we do have personnel that we will speak to this in closed session and I’m sure it will be talked about.”

Talia Rothenbuehler, next to speak, said, “When will this bullying stop in our school district. If this happened to one of your kids or grandchildren, how would you react? I didn’t know how I would react until I was put in that situation. What would happen if a student did commit suicide. I’ll leave you with 886 children in Wisconsin took their life, in one year, because they were being bullied.”

Nancy Walker Heimann spoke, “I took my children out of Black Hawk school last year because of bullying and nothing was being done, I have recently bought them back. Talia took matters into her own hands, because the bullying didn’t stop. It still hasn’t stopped. She does not deserve to lose her job. I know of 19 children who are still here or have left the district because of bullying. I won’t name names, but they all told me I could name their names. I want it to stop. When a student threatens to hurt another student, they deserve more then a week of in-school suspension or miss one football game. A statement needs to be made.”

Tanya Liphart emotionally told the board she brought her kids to Black Hawk because she liked the school district and wanted to raise their kids here. And now with everything that has happened to her daughter, they want to pull her of this district. “She’s the sweetest soul in the world and would never hurt anybody. This is not right,” Liphart said.

Stephanie Ranum said, “I’m proud of our granddaughter for having the sense to tell us what happened, that someone told her to go kill herself. No one should ever tell another human being to do that. I’ve worked in healthcare for forty years and have seen people come in that were so low, because of bullying, that they tried (successful or unsuccessful) to take their own life. We would treat them to get back on their feet and get back into society. This type of behavior should not be allowed. The sophomore class individuals that is doing this bullying needs to be reprimanded. They know what they are doing is not right.”

Lacey Pickett stated, “my son is in the sophomore class, he is socially awkward and he voted for special needs child, because she was the nicest person to me in the class. My son came home last year and told me he was called a (derogatory name) and the bullying has continued since that time. That’s not normal or acceptable. 

The Republican Journal reached out to the Black Hawk School Board and administration for comment and received a statement from Board President Holland, “The board listened to the concerns of the families affected by the recent bullying event. Administration went step by step through the response and actions taken to all parties involved per Board Bullying Policy. The Policy Committee will revisit the Bullying Policy in a future meeting per request.”