KIEL, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The mother of one of the students at the center of controversy in the Kiel School District is speaking out after the allegations made against her son were dropped.
Rose Rabidoux says she’s still worried that the sexual harassment accusations made by the district against her son for allegedly using the wrong pronouns to address a gender non-conforming student will follow him for the rest of his life.
“There has been no communication, as far as what ‘closed’ means,” she said. “There’s been no communication, as far as if it has been removed from their records.”
Rabidoux says the entire ordeal has scarred her son, and has led to depression.
Rabidoux and the WILL initially raised the issue of the Title IX investigation against the students weeks ago. They sent a letter to the district asking for the complaint to be dropped immediately.
“We wish they would have dismissed it right away – that could and should have happened,” said Berg. “I don’t know why they took two weeks to dismiss it, but we’re glad they finally did.”
The 6th threat that was sent to Kiel police last Wednesday warned that if the district didn’t drop the Title IX complaint by Friday, multiple locations would be targeted.
“That was the sixth one, and so if it was truly about the bomb threats, it would’ve been dropped way back when,” Rabidoux said. “We never wanted that for our community but, unfortunately, it was, and we felt that the district was actually blaming us for the bomb threats.”
The district sent out the release, informing that the matter was closed on Thursday. In it, they said they issued clear directives and expectations to all students involved in this matter.
“We were contacted in the middle of the night with letters that mean nothing, so,” Rabidoux said.
Rabidoux says, even though the investigation has come to an end, that’s still not enough.
“I believe it’s acceptable that they closed it, because then it is over, but we had asked for it to be dropped,” Rabidoux said. “The frustration is the fact that it was not dropped, and there wasn’t a public apology made to our children.”
While the Title IX investigation has been dropped, police say they continue to work with DCI and the FBI to track down the source of the previous threats and continue other investigations related to threats made to school staff members.
