More than 100 school districts in Wisconsin have received requests and objections to books

Conservative groups and “super-applicants” top the list

Members of organized conservative groups supported the removal petitions in at least 14 counties, and challenges were launched in many more counties by petitioners using book lists compiled by national political groups. The largest groups involved were Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, Mass Resistance, and Parents’ Rights in Education.

In many cases, independent citizens making inquiries relied on lists compiled by larger national groups such as booklooks.org and ratedbooks.org.

Eleven “super-petitors” — those who raised concerns or challenged 15 or more titles at once — accounted for 73% of the books affected. They often referenced lists of books from other districts or from online forums. Some had no children in the district. In nearly 60 cases, the school district did not own the book the petitioner wanted removed.

In addition to lists on national websites, the super-requesters used lists compiled by parents in other states. Two parents who collectively raised concerns about 86 books in the Watertown Unified School District used IowaMamaBears.com and an anonymous list they called the Parents List of Sexually Explicit Content.

The largest request from the period in which Wisconsin Watch requested records came from Lisa Anne Krueger of the Manitowoc School District, who asked for 310 “deviant, obscene, inappropriate, pro-abortion and anti-Christian” books from a list on October 10, 2023, but did not make a formal request. Krueger ran unsuccessfully for Manitowoc School Board election in February. She was the only applicant in the district.

After Wisconsin Watch filed its public records request in October, Melissa Bollinger challenged 444 books in the Elkhorn Area School District on Nov. 30, 2023, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A district policy prompted the temporary removal of the books, and after a review, administrators imposed or maintained restrictions on 135 books. Before their challenge, the district had received only two removal requests, both of which resulted in removal.

Applicants are often politically active

At least 849 inquiries and formal objections to books — more than half of them compiled by Wisconsin Watch — came from a school board member or candidate, another local politician or someone otherwise heavily involved in local conservative activism.

The most prominent of these lawmakers was Sen. Jesse James (R-Altoona), who in March 2022 asked 12 districts if they had a list of 51 books, according to his staff. The list was compiled by an Eau Claire parent who had previously opposed COVID-19 mask mandates and equity training materials. The books addressed gender, sexual and racial identity, and some contained sexually explicit or graphic content. Only eight of the districts provided records of James’ requests, so only those 408 were included in Wisconsin Watch’s count.

“Nothing further came of the request other than a simple information gathering exercise,” a James spokeswoman said. “We did NOT subsequently contact the schools about the removal of the books and we did NOT take any regulatory or oversight action after the request was fulfilled. … James really just wanted to know what age groups the books were available for, if they were available at all.”

In the Mequon-Thiensville district, supporters of an unsuccessful fall 2021 attempt to recall school board members called for the removal of Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” from libraries on September 30, 2021, because it contained “pornographic” and “racist” content. Petitioners Curt and Torri Woda and Dennis Becker, as well as Scarlett Johnson and Amber Schroeder of Moms for Liberty, who supported the motion, also joined the recall movement, which was based on concerns about pandemic restrictions and what members called critical race theory.

The motion became part of the recall talks after incumbent candidate Akram Kahn told a Fox News reporter that “since last August, the rules of the game have changed. It was about masks, open schools and now we’re talking about banning books in the district.” His comment prompted Curt Woda to accuse board members of citing the complaint for political reasons and “discrediting the Restore MTSD movement.”

“Portraying my family’s concerns about this particular book as part of the recall movement is completely wrong, but now you have made it one,” Woda wrote in an Oct. 25 email to Kahn and other board members.

Conservative media fuel book ban fever

Conservative media played a role in the calls for impeachment in at least twelve districts.

A July 20, 2023 TikTok post by Libs received more than 875,000 views after it claimed that the Kimberly Area School District offered “This Book is Gay” to students. Kimberly School Superintendent Bob Mayfield told the Post Crescent he learned about the social media post after state Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison) demanded an explanation. In addition to three inquiries to the district and two media inquiries, he received hundreds of messages on Twitter in the days that followed, mostly from outside the community, he told the Post Crescent.

But the district did not have physical copies of the book. A district official said the Wisconsin School District Library Consortium, which consists of 250 school districts, offers an online version of the book, but no Kimberly student has ever checked it out. All e-books for grades 7 through 12 have age restrictions, but a summary of all e-book titles is available through a search.

A similar, more aggressive scenario played out in the Kenosha school district.

After concerns about several books were raised in a September 3, 2023 TikTok article by Libs about the district, social media sparked a wave of removal requests in surrounding districts.

Kevin Mathewson of the far-right blog Kenosha County Eye sent emails to two county administrators on September 11, 2023, pointing out that Kenosha had made national headlines due to book removal requests. He asked if the county planned to remove four titles from the county that critics had criticized.

Jack Musha, administrator of Bristol School District 1, responded that the district has “some of the titles” in its library and has a “very specific policy regarding book reviews.” In his response, Mathewson asked, “Do you think liberals like you have a mental disorder or truly believe in the ideals of the Democratic Party?” He then asked Musha to send a photo of himself, adding, “If I write about how you like kids watching porn, people are going to want to put a face to your pedophile behavior.”

Michelle Garven, administrator of the Trevor-Wilmot Consolidated Grade School District, told Mathewson that none of the books are available for checkout at district libraries, but families can search for titles through the Wisconsin School District Library Consortium.

Mathewson vowed he would “not only write an article about how you allow pornography in your district, but also how you don’t want the public to know about it.” He later wrote that he was “very eager to publish an article about your sexual deviances,” adding, “Don’t make me sue you and embarrass you even more, because when I write my article, people will wonder why you want children to be exposed to pornography.”

His emails and reports prompted Garven to send Mathewson a cease and desist letter.