Vicki McKenna & 2 random WI dudes
Update 1: Welcome, Gateway Pundit (Jim Hoft) readers!
Update 2: Welcome, Rush Limbaugh fans! (Transcript here; Rush’s FB post & his fans’ comments here; video to be added later.) [11/26 update: video w/ Rush excerpts, and much more, here, and embedded below.] Thanks to both Rush and Bo Snerdley for the shout out!
Update 3: After four days of doing nothing to rebut the Nov. 18 complaint by a parent, on Vicki McKenna’s show, that Marshall schools have banned “Rush Revere” books as “inappropriate,” today at 1:16 p.m. (Central time) the Marshall school district posted this comment asserting that it had investigated the matter and had concluded that the parent made a “false report.” The district also posted its statement on various Facebook pages (here, here, and here). The district’s statement is somewhat cryptic and, as Vicki has noted, it has responded to the controversy in an odd, even bizarre, manner (for example, by never talking to her, or to the dad, during its “investigation”; by hanging up on her when she called to ask for clarification concerning the statement; and by involving a police officer in the matter, even though no crime is plausibly involved). Detailed questions have been put to the district, both by Vicki (here) and by this blogger (here). This blogger will supply an update by early next week, after ensuring that the district has a full and fair opportunity to respond.
Update 4: The Marshall high school principal, Brian Sniff (@PrincipalSniff), has confirmed in a Facebook comment that the district administrator (Dr. Barbara Sramek) will certainly be happy to speak with Vicki when school starts up again after the holiday, this coming Monday.
Update 5: This blogger just noticed (Nov. 28, 9:30 a.m.) that on Nov. 25, a response by Dr. Sramek to Vicki’s questions was posted on at least three Facebook pages maintained by the district, here, here, and here. Despite a school district employee having previously written this blogger (on Nov. 25), no one e-mailed to alert this blogger to Dr. Sramek’s statement. Nor did anyone post a comment on this blog noting the statement. There is no indication in Dr. Sramek’s statement that it was e-mailed to Vicki McKenna. This blogger looks forward to the fruits of the conversation Dr. Sramek promised last Wednesday (via a subordinate) to have with Vicki today, now that school has resumed.
*****
Two years ago Wisconsin talk-radio host Vicki McKenna broke a story, which quickly went national, about Wisconsin school officials who bullied an 11-year-old boy, threatening to expel him for bringing a “virtual gun” to his virtual (i.e., home) school. His offense? Displaying a tiny picture of a gun, with an American flag, on the computer which he used only at home — an image viewable by no other student. See blog posts here, here, and here.
Now Vicki has broken the story of Wisconsin school officials who are bullying a 6-year-old boy.
His offense? Bringing to school the latest book in the bestselling children’s book series on American history, “Adventures of Rush Revere,” written by Rush Limbaugh (with his wife Kathryn). The book, just published, is Rush Revere and the Presidency.
As Matt, the boy’s father, explained to Vicki during her November 18 afternoon (Madison) show, school officials in Marshall, Wisconsin, regard anything written by Rush Limbaugh as “inappropriate material” — even though the series has received rave reviews, and Rush won the 2013 “Author of the Year” award at the Children’s Choice Book Awards, for his first book in the series.
Here’s a five-minute clip from Vicki’s show:
For readers who might have questions or comments concerning this remarkable story, here is contact information for the school board’s president (bios here and here; FB here), the school district’s superintendent (bios here and here), and its director of instruction (bio here).
Dr. Barbara Sramek — District Administrator
(608) 655-3466
bsramek@marshallschools.org
Badger Pundit 
Who are these “school officials”? They need to be removed from their positions immediately. Then they need to be fired , including a permanent ban from working in a school system.
The post supplies contact info for the three officials who appear most responsible for this school district. I don’t have the name of anyone to whom the father specifically talked.
As long as parents continue to sit on their rears and do nothing and don’t voice their opinions, the libs will continue to silence and direct children to learn only what the Left wants taught. Wake up parents and let your views be heard. Or better yet, home school or send to a conservative private school, if either is possible.
Or maybe the parents know the district wouldn’t do such a thing. I also saw Marshall parents active on facebook and they were standing up for there district.
Who are these idiots,fire all of them. No more of this garbage!
The post supplies contact info for the three officials who appear most responsible for this school district. I don’t have the name of anyone to whom the father specifically talked.
But I bet they allow childrens books by Shel Silverstein — who also did cartoons and illustrations for Playboy magazine. . .
Books banned because they were deemed “inappropriate”. Since when is the truth inappropriate?
Well, in liberal-dominated public school education, whenever the truth is deemed inconvenient, it’s generally deemed in appropriate.
The first thing I would have asked of the school official is, “Have you read the book”. I’ll bet he hadn’t.
Actually, that’s a good point, and to be fair to the school officials, they may not have realized that the book’s geared to children, and that Rush has won a major award as a children’s author. I think you can plausibly make a case that one of Rush’s books written for adults might be age inappropriate for grade schoolers, as one school concluded in the 1990s: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/493658/JUDGE-PERMITS-SCHOOL-BAN-ON-RUSH—FOR-
I am still waiting to see what is deemed “inappropriate” about the book. Maybe school officials should elaborate further.
Rush Limbaugh books are often banned in public libraries and school libraries and the American Library Association’s annual “Banned Books Week” hoax NEVER lists Rush Limbaugh books. Part of the continuing evidence why it’s a hoax. Here’s a public library caught banning Rush Revere books DURING Banned Books Week:
Librarians Hate Rush Limbaugh, Love Censorship of Rush Revere Books for Children; The Banned Books Week Hoax Continues
http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2015/12/librarians-hate-rush-limbaugh.html
EXCELLENT point. I ran across this item doing some research this a.m. I concluded that what Vicki has exposed here is far worse. It’s one thing not to make a Rush Revere book available in the school library — i.e., not to spend PUBLIC funds on the book. It’s quite another to ban the book entirely from the school, even if purchased with PRIVATE funds.
Yes. And watch for next year’s Banned Books Week hoax. Notice your incident will not be on it. Write about it again then. ALA wins when people stay silent about this.
These educators embarrass me as a retired educator! Ideologically driven personalities!!!
What is happening to education in this country? Good grief! Every single one of these “educators” should be sent back to school (one that doesn’t have safe spaces, where they can learn about reality!) This is more proof that the public school system needs to go. Provide vouchers, and let parents decide where to send their kids. Tax payers shouldn’t have to pay these idiots’ salaries!
I wonder if the book is banned because…ummm. it contains bogus, revisionist history with a sly political agenda? I suspect so. If true, then parent that provided the child with the book (and doubtlessly put the child up to taking it to school) is using their own child to further partisan, divisive Machiavellian activism with tactics that take no account of a child’s proper education.,
Dano bivins troll, let me guess. You haven’t read the book. Am I right?
Whatever you say, Pajama Boy.
The great sin of the “Rush Revere” books is that they re-create actual AMERICAN HISTORY with accounts of founders overwhelmingly comprised of white, Christian males. Sorry, Dano, no black, transexual Muslims in the book recounting the life and exploits of Washington, Adams and Jefferson.
I agree that bogus, revisionist history is a big problem. But the leading malefactors aren’t LIBERALS, and they aren’t particularly sly about their political agenda. Here are a couple of pieces, from LIBERAL sources, about the problem of LIBERAL revisionist history, for your consideration:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/07/lies-the-debunkers-told-me-how-bad-history-books-win-us-over/260251/
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/december/wineburg-historiography-zinn-122012.html
Did you read the book or are just retarded?
I’d pull my kids right out of that stinking school
Three educrats to run a school district for a town of less than 4000?
I see this town is in Dane County. It’s starting to make sense.
Keep up the good work Marshall! America needs laborers. Which you’re creating by stifling education with your liberal views.
Isn’t the term liberals use “workers”? Maybe “drones” would be more appropriate.
By the way, Badger Pundit, given Limbaugh gets banned from schools and American Library Association [ALA] never makes a peep about it, I want you to know I recorded an author admitting ALA fakes its annual list of “banned” books. ALA admitted to her that other books were “banned” more than hers but they put hers on the list though it was challenged once because it had LGBT content. I later spoke with the author for half an hour. So ALA fakes discrimination against gays that studies have proven results in increased real discrimination and suicides of LGBT. Let me know if you want more info.
For Immediate Release
November 23, 2016
Re: False Report
Good afternoon,
I am writing you this afternoon to address an issue that has come to our attention. We received information that a parent of a first grader in our district phoned the Vicki McKenna show. The parent reported that the principal at his child’s school, presumably Marshall Early Learning Center, told his child that the student could not bring Rush Revere books to school because the books were inappropriate.
Last Friday, the district received contact from a Marshall resident who reported the call to the Vicki McKenna show. The district investigated the parent’s claim and found no factual basis for the parent’s statement. Neither the principal nor any first grade teacher has addressed a student regarding the Rush Revere books. As a matter fact, students at other grade levels have brought the Rush Revere books to school and have read them at school. In my 15-year tenure in the district, we have not banned a book, and, when a parent has objected to reading material, we have implemented the appropriate board policy to analyze the concern (See Board Policy 871 and subsequent administrative rules).
The district has determined that the parent call to the Vicki McKenna show is a false report with regard to the Marshall Public Schools. To date, the parent who made this allegation has not contacted the student’s teacher, the principal, or any district official regarding his assertion. Finally, to date, we have not had contact from any other party as to the results of our investigation or facts as we have come to know them related to this matter.
Thank you for your concern regarding our schools and instructional program. I hope that you enjoy the holiday weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!
Sincerely,
Barbara J. Sramek, Ph.D.
District Administrator
Marshall Public Schools
Listen to that YouTube above again. Unless the parent is lying, which I doubt, then the District Administrator is lying. The parent said he got a call from the school about the book being inappropriate. The DA says the principal “told his child.” At first blush it sounds like the kid may have misinterpreted things and the parent jumped the gun. But when you listen again to the parent, you realize, or at least I did, that the DA is lying.
At present I see no basis to believe that Dr. Sramek herself is lying, i.e., deliberately stating that something is a fact, while knowing that it is false. And I suggest you retract that assertion, which might be libelous.
It is perfectly possible that: (1) the parent who was featured on the Vicki McKenna Show actually spoke to a school official and was told that the “Rush Revere” books are “inappropriate”; but (2) when questioned during the subsequent investigation, the school official lied in denying any such conversation occurred; and (3) Dr. Sramek reasonably believed that school official (not having previously had cause to think he or she would lie).
Where Dr. Sramek may be on thin ice (assuming the above comment was actually authorized by her) is in stating that the parent made “a false report,” which might conceivably be regarded as libel, if it turns out that it’s THE PARENT who is telling the truth, and it’s the SCHOOL OFFICIAL who lied during the investigation.
Okay, to be clear, “you realize, or at least I did” means that it is my opinion. It is my opinion that, after I listened again to the YouTube, the DA is lying. If she’s twisting the truth, that’s still lying. That said, I look forward to your continued investigation into this matter. I’ll let others report, then I’ll comment on the report. But if that man is to be believed, it’s my opinion the school is intentionally misleading people. It would not be the first time. He seemed pretty clear to me. And his statement was based in significant part on communications with school people, not just his child.
If I am able to determine that this is a genuine statement by Dr. Sramek, I will post it as an update to my blog post. However, at present I have no means of verifying that Dr. Sramek has authorized this statement. I would appreciate if Dr. Sramek, or someone acting on her behalf, would e-mail me at thebadger14@gmail.com, using an official e-mail address, confirming that this comment is genuine, if in fact that is the case.
If the comment is genuine, I would appreciate an answer to these questions:
1. Who specifically “investigated the parent’s claim,” and what did the investigation involve?
2. By what date and time did the district conclude that there was “no factual basis for the parent’s statement”?
3. As soon as the district concluded that there was “no factual basis for the parent’s statement,” did anyone at the district promptly inform anyone at the Vicki McKenna Show of that conclusion? FYI, before making my blog post, I allowed four days to pass, and took care to check with Ms. McKenna late last night, before posting, to make sure there was no update to the story.
4. Does the district admit that the person who called Vicki McKenna’s show is an actual parent of a first-grade student?
5. If so, is it the district’s position that the parent lied in stating that he had ANY DISCUSSION AT ALL with someone at the school regarding a “Rush Revere” book?
Again, I would appreciate e-mail confirmation that this comment is genuine, and I would appreciate either an e-mail (which I will then post on the blog) or a comment responding to each of my questions.
UPDATE: At 9:30 a.m. today, the Marshall school district responded to these five questions. Response reprinted in full here: https://thebadger14.wordpress.com/2016/11/28/no-direct-evidence/
Dr. Sramek posted this to the Marshall ELC facebook page. Not hard to find.
Thanks. But hardly easy to find. The comment posted on this blog did not refer to any Facebook post, or link to anything that would verify its authenticity.
Agree. Post the Facebook link please. I could not find it quickly.
https://www.facebook.com/MarshallEarlyLearningCenter/
Okay, I see it there. (Thanks for link.) Now, seeing the source appears to be legitimate, I’ll have to lean in favor of the school district.
I’m wondering if the parent who called, who didn’t want to name the school, who was asked to name the district, and named the district he did, may have provided a different district than the actual one.
Whatever, clearly more research is needed to determine what’s going on. I’m going to subscribe to this blog so I can follow any follow up easily.
I think we should get all of the facts here. Was the problem the principal at the ELC in Marshall? I completely understand the outrage that this book was deemed inappropriate. However, I know Jon Bunch and he is a very good man. Saying that he shouldn’t be allowed on the school board or in a position that deals with children is ludicrous.
Let’s see phone records. Did ANYONE from the School call the child’s house before the man called WIBA? If so, one would have to wonder “why?” and it’s unlikely that it would be a coincidence that a School official called that house about another unrelated matter.
Excellent point.
Mr. Redman, thank you for your tip about Officer Joey Hoops being a part-time radio DJ. If you’re familiar w/ his appearance, could you confirm whether or not this is him?: https://youtu.be/YENv8jpvOlg?t=32m7s. Thanks for any reaction you can provide!
The story yas been denied by school officials.
Unclear what the heck is happening with the school district. It issued a cryptic statement raising many questions, and has not yet answered any of the questions, and it’s behaved quite oddly in general. See “Update 3” at the top of the blog post. Hopefully there will be some clarification of the facts by next week.
I listened to the Vicki McKenna 11/18/16 show and the caller referred to the Rush Revere book about the presidents. The new Rush Revere book about the presidency wasn’t released until 11/22/16. The caller also says he doesn’t want to call out the school but then names the school district which only has one school for each grade level, in a district located in a liberal county. All of this leads me to believe this whole “controversy” is to drum up free publicity for the new book. The timing is definitely suspect.
After waiting four days after the Nov. 18 broadcast, I decided to do a video and post on it, on my own initiative. Rush had nothing to do with it. Although it’s possible that the original caller was not telling the truth (the jury’s still out on that), it seems inconceivable that he called as part of a publicity stunt, as the only reason the call ended up getting national attention was because I did a post on it, which Gateway Pundit (a major conservative blog) referenced, leading to attention by Rush Limbaugh (who’s friendly with Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit fame). I agree that the timing is pretty suspicious, but I can assure you I wasn’t part of a publicity stunt. Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence!
Of course this is about publicity…Vicki McKenna gets publicity by being mentioned on Rush’s show. He gets publicity for his book. Badger Pundit and Gateway Pundit also get national recognition. Everyone wins. Well, except the Marshall School District, its administrators, teachers, principals, school board, etc., and ultimately the students, since resoiurces are pulled away from them to deal with this garbage. The fact that individuals are making threatening phone calls to these people is why the police are involved. I don’t expect an online blogger who couldn’t cut it as a real journalist to have journalistic integrity, but I’m disappointed in Ms. McKenna and Mr. Limbaugh for frothing up some outrage with no consideration to the damage that can be done to this small district. They had no facts. They and you didn’t do any research or checking before running with this story but the district is supposed to clean up your mess and answer your inquiries after the fact. How about you ask those questions prior to writing the blog in the first place? Oh yeah, because it’s easier to lay blame and make accusations than it is to properly vet sources. Lazy. Shame on you.
Nice fake news site. Waiting four days is a far cry from the responsibilities you have as a “journalist”. Here is a website that could teach you a thing or two: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Let’s have the caller/father step up and give his name and come forward with details of the teacher and principal that he talked to and when this allegedly happened. No one wants to believe the district who sends out an official press release but folks want to believe a guy who calls into a radio show, drops a first name, says he doesn’t want to name the school, but then goes ahead and names the district. How about the radio station steps up and calls the father back and asks him for details to verify their story? The school district has come forward, time for the radio station and caller to do the same. The bottom line in all of this is everyone rushed to judgement without any facts. Anyone can call a radio station and say whatever they want and what’s disappointing is these so called journalists have taken the bait and run with it in order to draw more attention to themselves while harming the reputation of a school district.
You make reasonable points. But consider that the school district issued a somewhat cryptic statement. When Vicki McKenna called for clarification, the school employee to whom she was directed hung up on her. Apparently the so-called “investigation” did not involve speaking with Vicki or with the dad. Also, apparently, the district has now involved a police officer, which seems odd given that it’s difficult to see what crime might be involved here. See “Update 3” on my post. Fortunately, according to a tweet by Vicki, it appears that Dr. Sramek has promised to get back to Vicki with answers to her questions: https://twitter.com/VickiMcKenna/status/801564793975046144. Hopefully Dr. Sramek will also sddress, in her response to Vicki, the questions I have separately posed.
If it turns out that the district did nothing wrong, it’s unfortunate that it did not contact Vicki on Monday or Tuesday to dispute the accuracy of what the caller said, which it learned of on Friday. I only wrote and posted my piece AFTER learning from Vicki on Tuesday evening that there was no further update on the Friday story.
Thank you for your very intelligent comment.
Story gets weirder…if you use the “Bing” search engine for this story you’ll see a Jan 20 2017 “date stamp” (the only reason I clicked on it…my calendar still reads 2016).
The Principal of the school is Rich Peters.
A reliable denial would identify him and simply deny the allegation.
The release from the district administrator uses deceptive language and issues an Unreliable Denial.
[…] According to Badger Pundit: […]
you guys should not always believe what you guys read on the internet. Those school officials (Sutton,Sramek,Bunch) are trust worthy and good people and never would do such a thing! leave this school alone! also read the release from the school.
Also, “Matt” was referring to “Rush Revere and the Presidency” which was released 11/22/16 the caller made his call into the Vicki Mckenna show on 11/18. Right there is proof it is a lie.
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