BRODHEAD, WI – A local high school out of the Brodhead School District in Wisconsin is stirring up a bit of controversy after onboarding a school counselor who reportedly identifies as transgender/non-binary. The crux of the controversy seems to stem from concerns surrounding children being steered toward a guidance counselor who may impart inappropriate topics or ideologies to these youths.
When the Brodhead School District announced the recruitment of Rae Thompson as the new counselor at Brodhead High School via the district’s official Facebook page on August 1st, the district likely didn’t anticipate the blowback they’d receive over what was arguably thought of as nothing more than a ‘Welcome Aboard’ type of social media post.
Yet, pushback was exactly what the district got, and the amount received was pretty substantial.
Of course, when reading the original post in question in conjunction with the feedback peppered throughout the comments section, it’s painfully obvious what all the hubbub is about: Rae Thompson clearly presents herself as transgender/non-binary.
Thompson’s introduction via the school district showcases that the school counselor insists upon “they/them” pronouns being used in reference to her, as well as Thompson adopting a non-binary honorific of “Mx.” instead of “Ms.” or “Mrs.” in reference to her biological sex.
While the comments section has since been removed as of August 2nd (more on that later), some of the responses to the original post were as follows:
“Lost me at they/them. So when kids are feeling vulnerable, you’re sending them straight to the groomer?”
“Everyone knows a groomer when we see one. Try again. When the kids are having a bad day, this thing is who they’re sent to. No thanks.”
“Gross, no business being around children.”
“How is it going to help children accept themselves when it couldn’t?”
Needless to say, a myriad of other comments mirrored the aforementioned sentiments, as well as others teetering more toward mocking and the ilk.
Shortly after the immense backlash began fomenting in the comments section on the original post, the Brodhead School District made a follow-up post on Facebook claiming that comments that are “abusive” in nature would get removed and possibly lead to certain profiles being blocked.
“While everyone is welcome and encouraged to comment, our priority is to protect students, staff, and community members. Comments and/or posts that do not follow this may be removed.
We have a zero-tolerance policy for cyberbullying and/or posts or comments that are political, racist, sexist, abusive, profane, violent, obscene, spam, contain falsehoods or are wildly off-topic, or that libel, incite, threaten, or make ad hominem attacks on students, employees, guests, or other individuals.” – Brodhead School District
It should be noted that, despite Brodhead School District’s threat of blocking critics, a 2019 ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that public officials (and thereby public entities) cannot block their critics or delete comments from official social media accounts – even if the comments are rude or offensive.
In the 2019 ruling of Davidson v. Randall, it was found that when the chair of a local board of supervisors in Virginia, Phyllis Randall, blocked an online critic on Facebook and deleted the person’s comment, Randall had violated the First Amendment since the government-run Facebook page served as a protected public forum.
And it seems like the folks over at Brodhead School District had learned about this particular First Amendment carveout for government-run social media accounts as of August 2nd, with Brodhead School District Administrator David Novy addressing this particular subject in tandem with a decision to modify how the Facebook page would be run moving forward.
“The First Amendment provides for free speech, allowing anyone to speak their mind freely, no matter how divisive the messaging may be. For instance, we can’t selectively take down one post and keep all other posts active. We can’t remove a specific comment that is offensive or even harassing or threatening because it’s an open public site… Through the advice of our lawyer, we have two options in regard to our Facebook page. One option is to allow all comments on the Facebook site or allow no comments at all for the entire Facebook site. From this point on, we will no longer accept any comments on any portion of our District Facebook page. We need to do what we can to protect our staff members and support them in any and every way we can. It’s unfortunate it needs to come to this, but our Facebook site will now simply consist of, more or less, a billboard of events.” – David Novy, District Administrator, School District of Brodhead
School officials, such as Novy, are also sticking by their hiring decision with Thompson, claiming that the district cannot fire her over the backlash of Thompson’s abnormal lifestyle as Thompson’s purported “gender identity” is a protected status.
Gregory Hoyt is a former contributor to outlets such as Law Enforcement Today and Red Voice Media, and current host of The Breakdown with Greg Hoyt. Based out of Sierra Vista, Arizona, Hoyt is a staunch and outspoken advocate of law enforcement and first responders, while also harboring the unique experience of having spent nearly 5 years in prison. Since then, he's used his unique perspective to offer support and commentary about the criminal justice system. When not working or combating bad ideas, Hoyt also leisurely studies economics, history, and law.