In Kiel, Wisconsin, attack on ‘critical race theory’ ignores bullying of Black student

The Wempner family felt like prisoners as they sat in their house in early June — surrounded by woods on their 6-acre lot outside of Kiel.

Their usually sleepy northeastern Wisconsin town had transformed into a culture war battlefront, stoking fears of violence. Parents of three middle school boys, along with a conservative law firm, pushed a one-sided story that went viral across conservative media: That the Kiel school district was investigating the boys for allegedly using the wrong pronouns to address a transgender student.

Backlash to the story drew national headlines. It culminated in a series of bomb threats over nine days that paralyzed the city’s government, ended the school year early and left many longtime residents feeling that their town had been hijacked by larger forces...

...Armond is now putting high school in the rearview mirror. He’s working a job in Kiel and visits his parents for Wednesday-night suppers. He doesn’t want people to see him as a victim. He just wants to ensure that his younger siblings, who are all children of color, don’t face what he did.

As he looks back on Kiel’s two years of turmoil that started with something that happened to him, Armond said it never felt like the conversation was about him.

“It didn’t even have anything to do with kids,” he said. “It was just about the adults.”