11/10/2026
In August 2026, after I began speaking publicly about Title IX concerns and broader issues of respect for students’ civil rights in the Kaukauna Area School District, I unexpectedly found myself in uncomfortable territory: racism.
I have hesitated to write about this.
I do not claim to be the best messenger, and I know the subject is charged. But several parents of racially diverse children in the district have shared credible accounts with me, and I believe the public deserves to hear the pattern those accounts reveal.
These parents described experiences of racism directed at their children by peers and, in some cases, by adults. They also described retaliation after they formally reported those concerns—retaliation aimed at both the students and the parents themselves.
Some of the children eventually left the district for other local schools where they felt safer.
One talented Black athlete who was repeatedly benched in Kaukauna- transferred, excelled at his new school, and went on to earn a scholarship playing for a Big Ten University.
Other accounts involved Black girls targeted for their hairstyles, disproportionate discipline for minor infractions, stereotyping by educators and peers, and inadequate or drawn-out responses from administrators that left students feeling unsafe.
What troubled me most was not only the incidents themselves, but the response.
A leadership structure made up largely of white adults too often appears to have slow-walked these concerns.
Investigations that drag on until a student no longer feels safe at school are not acceptable. Neither is a climate in which parents fear that reporting racism will bring retaliation on their children or their families.
It is especially troubling - when examining most of these situations -that a governing body full of white people were consciously minimizing the realities of racially diverse children.
To finish reading follow this link:
https://drewpavlovich.substack.com/p/rethinking-racism-in-kaukauna-wi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=e3a0n
