Elmbrook Candidate Uses the "Bias" Card
Research on candidate Mary Wacker shows she references "bias" when advocating for her viewpoint to be adopted by the district.
Community members have noticed that Elmbrook candidate Mary Wacker has pointed to “bias” to advocate that her viewpoints be adopted by the district. Bias and related terms are frequently used in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs that have come under increasing scrutiny. Coincidentally, one study published just days ago points to DEI creating more division and being counter productive.
Below are Mary’s own words when she talks about bias.
August 2021
As Elmbrook was preparing for the return of students in fall of 2021, the district received strong feedback from parents who wanted mask choice for their children, so Elmbrook pivoted to allow mask-optional classes. Mary’s response to this accommodation said:
“I find this bias unbelievable.
The district’s inability to require masks has resulted in this incredible bias that will affect the learning of children. This is an irresponsible decision on every level.”
She goes on to reference vaccination and then requests classroom enrollment data for mask versus mask-optional classes. Her reason for asking the enrollment numbers is:
“I would like to know how pervasive this bias is as demonstrated by class sizes across the district.”
As noted on Mary’s nomination papers, Elmbrook Safe Open Schools (SOS) co-founder, Emily Schultz, who spoke about “following the science” circulated nomination papers for Mary, her Mom.
November 2023
In November 2023, Mary voiced her dissatisfaction on the choice of authors in new curriculum, and wanted additional choices based on gender. She also objected to challenges on explicit books because books that portray war are also not being challenged. She says (at 1:56:07):
“I do have grave concerns about books that portray domestic violence against women and youth as being challenged when I haven’t heard anybody bring up a challenge to books that portray the atrocities of violence in war, many of which are listed in here. I think, maybe it’s not intentional, but there is a long-standing cultural bias of the way we look at women in history, the way we look at their voices in literature.”
Gender is an element that is specifically called out by ICS for Equity in their teachings. Elmbrook worked with ICS for Equity from 2012 to 2021, and gender is shown on this slide below from October 2020.
Additionally, Mary’s response disregarding challenges to books is reminiscent to when the district originally painted objections to explicit books as “bigoted.” Explicit books are still a pervasive problem in Elmbrook. On 2/12/24, when Mary was asked about this issue in the Board Candidate Forum, her response was (at 49:23): “Are district policies working? Yes. Yes they are.”
Mary Wacker faces off against Nicole Hunker in the April 2nd, 2024 election.