13-year-old Braden is a good kid who has never been in serious trouble, his mom tells Glenn. But he's now under a school investigation for HARASSMENT claims. It all started when Braden defended a friend who was being berated for accidentally using the wrong pronouns when addressing another classmate. His mother, Robin, and Luke Berg, from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, join Glenn to detail the completely ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ case now facing this middle schooler...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So Rose Rabidoux is the -- is the mom of the 13-year-old Bradon. She's just one of the mothers, but she would agree to come on with us.
And Luke Berg is with the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty. He is -- if I'm not mistaken, Luke, I want to get this right. You were with the Wisconsin Department of Justice, right?
LUKE: Yeah. Before I joined Will for about four years, then I joined Will two and a half years ago.
GLENN: Okay. And you were the assistant attorney general? So you're a guy who knows, you know, the law in the state, and have credibility because you were on the -- the stateside for a long time. First of all, Rose, thank you for think on the program. Thank you for being brave enough to come on, and tell the story. Can you -- in your own words, tell what's happened?
ROSE: Sure. Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having us on. This is outrageous. It is outrageous. Sexual harassment has absolutely nothing to do with incorrect pronouns. Proper pronouns. Whatever you want to call it.
GLENN: Misgendering, I think is the phrase.
ROSE: Misgendering. So the students. The student who is a girl. Dresses like a girl. Wears make up like a girl. Decided last month, to tell the entire class, that she wanted to be referred to as they/them. And it wasn't even that these boys refused. They were confused. My son came home confused. Mom, they are plural pronouns, and I don't understand how to use them. And so I told him, to call her by name. But if you didn't, she will let you have it. And that's what she was doing. She was letting one of his friends have it. Because he is mis-gendered. He used the wrong pronoun. And Bradon stood up and said, he doesn't have to use your pronouns. It's his constitutional right. And that is why --
GLENN: God bless Bradon.
ROSE: I know. I know.
GLENN: And so --
ROSE: He's a good kid.
GLENN: He's a straight A student, right?
ROSE: He is. He works hard.
GLENN: Okay. Has he been in trouble before?
ROSE: He has not been in trouble like this. He is a normal boy. Has he said a cuss word and I got a call from the principal? Absolutely.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh. What kind of animal are you raising.
ROSE: Nothing like this.
GLENN: So, Rose, I want you to know, when my son was 13. He was an angel. So they -- when you called the school, what did they say?
ROSE: Well, they called me. So the elementary school Principal. He was the one in charge of just gathering the facts. He called me, forewarning me that he was going to be sending over this email, this sexual harassment allegations.
And, you know, at first, you think, sexual harassment, oh, my gosh. That's rape. That's inappropriate touching.
These are outrageous things.
GLENN: Right.
ROSE: And my son is a kid. He's not sexually active. He's very much -- you know, plays video games with his friends. He's a boy.
GLENN: Yeah.
ROSE: And -- and so when he told me it was for not using the proper pronouns. I mean, I just thought it was a joke --
GLENN: Did you laugh?
ROSE: I did. I did.
GLENN: I would have too.
ROSE: I said, this has got to be a joke. I told him, this is wrong, in so many ways. And he wanted to meet with us the next day. So I guess, it's this generic form letter via email, saying he's being charged sexual harassment for not using proper pronouns. But no details. Not who accused him. Not what it is that he did. No information whatsoever. We meet with him on Tuesday. And we go in, and we're interrogated. As Bradon is asked a bunch of questions. To which Bradon answers, honestly. Did I make a mistake? Yes. Did I accidentally call her she or her?
Yes. But I didn't mean to. I meant to call her by her name. Because I don't understand the pronoun.
GLENN: Well, I think he was right on his First Amendment right. You have a right to do that.
That's not sexual harassment. This is political correctness gone insane. Luke. Luke.
ROSE: AWOL.
GLENN: Help me out here. What does the law say? Have they charged -- have they charged Bradon and his other friends?
LUKE: So it's an internal school investigation. So, you know, they -- it's like a 90-day process. Where they're gathering information. And the end of this, they will decide what to do. And it could be a suspension or an expulsion at the worst. So it's not a criminal complaint. It's not a civil lawsuit yet. It's an internal school investigation.
GLENN: Right. And I could see -- I can see, if you needed to gather the facts, why you would have 90 days. But this seems pretty darn simple. You know.
LUKE: Yeah. And actually, Title IX regulations, and their own policies say, that if you get allegations, that even if proved, wouldn't amount to sexual harassment, you shouldn't start the investigation. You should dismiss it immediately. And that's what should have happened here. Right?
As soon as they heard the allegations were solely for mispronouning. They shouldn't have even interviewed people. They should have dismissed it immediately. Because there's nothing anywhere, in the law. Nothing in the regs. Nothing in the policy. That would cover mispronouning. Because mispronouning is not a word.
Much less in the law.
(laughter)
So what we told them in the district, is you should have dismissed it, and you need to immediately dismiss it, so that they don't have to go through this whole 90-day investigation and have this on their reputation. Have this on their record, and have the stress of this, for 90 days. You need to dismiss it right away.
GLENN: So, Rose, there's a reason, I mean, I really like milk and cheese. But there's a reason I don't live in Wisconsin. Because Wisconsin is the leading state of progressivism. Or has been for a long time. Is the area you live in, is it real progressive? Or is this just the school?
ROSE: No. This is the school. And this is not -- so I moved to this area in 2019 for this school district. Because everything that had been reported about this school district, was, it's great academically. The graduation rate was 98 percent. And we moved up here, and covid happened. And so I gave them a chance, just because things were kind of out of whack with covid.
But this school district has not held up to its side at all. Academically, I believe my -- my children are bored. There's no homework. I knew something was wrong when there was no homework. And -- and now this is just -- this is completely outrageous.
GLENN: All right. So, Luke, what's -- because it's not enough for them to just say, oh. Okay. We're not going to do that. Or we're sorry. Or whatever. We have got to follow these things through, so it doesn't happen again.
LUKE: Yeah. That's absolutely right. I mean, the first and most important thing is getting this off these kids' records. That's what we're asking the school to do immediately. We're also asking them to make changes so that this doesn't happen again. Because this is clearly inappropriate obviously. There seems to be a trend in the school district. We're actually aware of another family, who has had sexual harassment charges for a single comment, allegedly mispronouning another student. So this is -- this is -- the district's vision, apparently, to use the sexual harassment process as a weapon, to force students into their preferred mode of speaking, and that's obviously a huge First Amendment problem. So, yeah. We're asking them to make changes. We'll see if they do. But that's part of why we're calling attention to this publicly and talking about it publicly, because they need to be shamed.
This needs to be called attention to, so that some changes are made. Please keep in touch with me. Let me know what the outcome is on this. And the twist and turns. We would like to follow this.
This is happening all over the country, not just all over your district. It's happening all over the country. The teacher's unions are -- are responsible for a lot of it. That, and the federal government, as well. The Department of Education. And it is destroying our kids. Just destroying us.
And it will in the end, just destroy our nation. So thank you for the fight, Rose. Thank you for standing up.
And I wish you, and the other families, all the best in this. God bless.
ROSE: Thank you. Thank you so much.
LUKE: Thank you.
GLENN: You bet. All right. Back in just a minute.