School board praises the disrupters

No wonder Police Chief Mike Koval is miffed. (Reported here.) So are we. This blogge did not realize until this very day that school resource officers (as the Madison school board is now calling them) have no real advocates on the current school board. 

The school board would have sided with the F-bombing social justice warriors had it not been for — of all things — Scott Waker and the Republican legislature. As it is, they may worm out of contracting for police by making Mike Koval the fall guy.

As we said earlier, the Madison Board of Education added yet another poison pill Monday night (12-17-19) that would allow the district to expel police from Madison’s troubled high schools “for cause.” 

Not the troublemakers — the police!

T.J. Mertz, who is up for re-election in April, sponsored the amendment. “If there are problems [the police] are not coming back to school the next day. They’re going to be out of the building.”

This is on top of a long list of restrictions on those troublesome cops devised by the school board committee dominated by Progressive Dane cop haters, including a separate grievance procedure outside that authorized by  state law.

As it was, the Board of Education proposed a new three-year contract with Madison Police by only a 4-2 vote. One switch and the motion would have failed.

Voting YES were T.J. Mertz, Dean Loumos, James Howard, and board president Mary Burke. 

Voting NO were Kate Toews and Nikki Vander Meulen  (Member Gloria Reyes was not present, believing she had a conflict of interest because she is deputy mayor.)

Three of the four said the only reason they voted Aye was because of a state law passed in the wake of the school shootings at Parkland, Florida. Wisconsin Act 143 mandates that school personnel immediately report  “serious and imminent threats to the health or safety of a student, school employee, or the public” and to do so without seeking prior approval from school bureaucracy. 

“The state passed legislation that, under penalty of law, requires our staff to call police directly under certain circumstances,” Mertz said. “That reinforced my belief there would be police in the schools. [The proposed contract] gives us greater control.”

Just some of the fun and games Monday night at the Madison school board

Board vice president James Howard agreed. “They pass a state law and now anyone can call the police. I have a real problem with that. One of biggest problems we have had is staff calling police. I don’t want staff calling the police. … I don’t know what is an imminent threat?”

With 4,200 school district staff, one is bound to call in the police when trouble breaks out. Might as well have them in the school and under the nominal control of the school district, member Dean Loumos theorized. “Not having that [for cause] clause is baffling to me.”

We can’t be doing this!

But member Kate Toews showed some appreciation for the law. “It’s not in the contractual ability of MMSD to select or unselect officers in our schools — particularly the ability to remove officers.” Not that Toews supports police in schools. Far from it!

Member Nikki Vander Meulen noted that the proposed contract requires school resource officers to be trained in autism, brain development, racial bias. “The training that is required for EROs is very different than the training provided for teacher… I’m not sure can provide that training.”

Many of the members betrayed the school board’s antipathy toward police in general.  Dean Loumos: “I would look at this as our last contract. Where is the data that says this helps? There really isn’t any.”

Members went out of their way to praise the social justice warriors who again disrupted Monday night’s meeting, forcing the board to call a recess. Who again hurled the F-bomb, mocked president Burke, chanted their slogans, and cried Racism and — at a previous meeting — called Howard “a so-called black man.”

Bianca Gomez, Freedom Inc. employee

The school board is so proud of you,
Freedom Inc. ringleader Bianca Gomez

Here is member Kate Toews: “I want to express my appreciation for community members and young people who have come to speak to us, who have been poignant, committed and persuasive. I’m proud to have them in Madison. So, thank you. I’m not sure we’re doing the right thing.”

President Burke agreed: “The people who have shown up have had an enormous impact.”

(Dean Loumos actually apologized to the disrupters who shouted Blaska down at a June committee meeting for allowing Blaska to speak!)

Only Howard had a kind word for the four school police who, like himself, are minorities — which makes the social justice warriors charges of racism so ridiculous.

“I like our EROs. I think they fit into our schools very nicely; they know our students and that is very important.”

Chief Koval will discuss school resource officers with Vicki McKenna at 5:15 this afternoon on 1310 AM. Blaska will follow at 5:35 p.m.