Tuesday night’s New Richmond School Board meeting stretched for hours and drew emotional testimony from parents and students, but ultimately ended without action.
Alpha News previously reported that multiple female students described feeling anxious, fearful, and avoiding school bathrooms after learning biological males were permitted to use the girls’ facilities, and that parents questioned why the practice was never formally approved by the board or communicated to families. Both agenda items at Tuesday’s meeting — a proposed investigation into how the restroom practice was authorized and a formal bathroom policy — failed, leaving families with unanswered questions and no clear path forward.
The school board meeting revealed something far deeper than a disagreement over policy. It exposed a growing fracture between the people and the institution meant to serve them.
The turnout alone told the story. The boardroom, entryway, and breezeway were packed with students, parents, support staff, and taxpayers. These were not outsiders; they were members of the community, citizens who came to peacefully participate in local government.
But what they encountered was deeply troubling.
For the first time in recent memory, a uniformed police officer was seated inside the meeting room, near the board table itself. No officer was present at the Jan. 29 meeting at the same location. The presence of law enforcement inside a routine public school board meeting sent a chilling message: parents were treated not as stakeholders, but as potential threats. This is not what local governance in America is supposed to look like.
Board President Bryan Schafer was absent at the start, leaving Vice President Kent Elkin to preside. When Board Member Ben Engelhart made a motion to extend public comment so the large crowd could be heard, the board voted it down. Thirty minutes was all the community was allowed, despite overwhelming public interest.
Whether intentional or not, the message was unmistakable: the voices of taxpayers and parents were not being taken seriously.
The board then moved swiftly past calls for further investigation into policies that have deeply concerned families. Questions put forth by Engelhart, on behalf of the public, were blocked. Transparency was treated as a threat, not a duty.
Parents have done everything they were instructed to do. Complaints were filed through the federal reporting system overseen by the U.S. Department of Education. Families showed up. They spoke respectfully. They followed the process. And yet, nothing has changed.
Which leads to a direct and unavoidable question for Linda McMahon, the secretary of education: Where are you?
Parents were promised federal leadership would restore accountability and protect students. But what families in New Richmond are experiencing feels no different than the sweeping Title IX reinterpretations under Joe Biden, where federal authority was immense, but parental voices felt powerless. Authority without action is not leadership.
On Tuesday night, parents witnessed something they will not soon forget: a police officer stationed inside a school board meeting, a board unwilling to extend time to hear its citizens, and a growing sense that those entrusted with governance are no longer listening to the people who entrusted them with responsibility.
This is no longer simply a disagreement over policy. This is a test of whether public education remains accountable to the public at all. And when citizens recognize that truth, history shows that change is no longer a question of if, only when.
It is time for real journalists to step forward and do what this moment demands: investigate. Investigate who leads this board. Investigate who directs this district. Investigate who authorized these decisions, who enforced the silence, and why questions from Board Member Engelhart, questions asked on behalf of the people, were blocked instead of answered. The public deserves to know what is being hidden and who is responsible.
To Secretary McMahon, the question now echoes far beyond New Richmond: will you stand with the people you were appointed to serve, or will your silence become part of the story itself?
When it comes to education in Wisconsin, parents are learning a hard truth: without enforcement, promises are meaningless. Administrations may change, rhetoric may change, but when federal authority is not exercised, the outcome remains the same. Courts continue to interpret. Bureaucracies continue to operate. And the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction continues with business as usual.
For families on the ground, it no longer feels like a question of Republican or Democrat, or one president versus another. It feels like a system that protects itself first and listens to parents last. And when enforcement never comes, the message to every school district is clear: there are no consequences, only compliance with the status quo.
This is why President Schafer and Superintendent Troy Miller feel emboldened; they know the state is satisfied, and they trust their board will follow without resistance. And so, in 2026, biological girls are strangers in their own bathrooms while the school board moves on to bus routes, budget lines, and business as usual.
Matthew Bocklund is the former chair of the St. Croix County Republican Party.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
