MONTAGUE — A politically charged incident at Montague High School
was the focus of the public comment period during Monday's regular
school board meeting.
According to public commenters, the
incident in question took place on Election Day, when a boy wore a small
pin to school in support of the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and
Tim Walz. The boy's mother, Jen Hain, as well as the mother of one of
the boy's friends, Kelly Markley, spoke about the incident, with
Montague library employee Ty Bortell also sharing what he heard from
students discussing the incident later at the library.
According
to all three, the boy was called a "baby killer" by at least one other
student, was told to remove the pin under threat of physical violence,
and was told he should kill himself. The class's teacher overheard the
"baby killer" comment, referencing the Democratic ticket's support of
abortion rights, and told students they should not address political
topics in that way, but nevertheless expressed that they too did not
like the "baby killers."
Hain reported that her son took
the comments in stride because rhetoric like that has been common, which
she said astounded her. She did report that the teacher later
apologized to her son for their comment, and she also requested that in
the future "the adults in the room" shut down such discussion before it
reached the point it reached with her son. Additionally, she expressed
pride in her son for standing up for his beliefs, which she said he's
come to have due to extensive research he does on history and
international politics in his own free time.
As is board
protocol during the public comment period, the board did not directly
respond to any of the three comments, but superintendent Jeff Johnson
said in a statement to the Mirror Tuesday, "Montague Area Public Schools
takes all reports of negative behavior
seriously. We had already initiated a thorough investigation to
understand what occurred and address any concerns. We are fully
committed to ensuring a safe and respectful environment for all
students."
Also at the board meeting, Johnson congratulated
Cindy Francis for being re-elected to the school board; Francis said she
has served on the board for 27 years, and her new six-year term will
take her to 33. Emily Fullmer was also recognized for being elected to
the board; she will replace Tom Johnson, whose term ends at the end of
the year. Johnson did not seek re-election.
The board approved
a purchase of a tilting skillet and combination oven from Douglas
Equipment after putting the purchase out for bids. The two items
together will cost just shy of $80,000 and will be funded by the food
service budget. Jeff Johnson reported that the combination oven, as the
name suggests, allows food service workers to cook multiple dishes at
different temperatures at the same time, and the tilting skillet also
allows for a wide variety of different options that will help improve
meal offerings for students.
During the monthly Meaningful
Minute segment of the meeting, in which each building's principal
shares recent happenings at their school, Nellie B. Chisholm Middle
School principal Jim Perreault thanked the board for its support of the
school's planned Chicago trip later this school year and reported that
many students were signing up to go on the trip.
Johnson
also gave interested parties a tour of the new arena next to the high
school following the meeting. The courts have been placed in the new
arena, and much of the construction has been completed. There is still
work to do on preparing the interior of the new arena for hosting games,
but the school is excited for the possibilities the larger space will
offer. The official estimated completion date for the arena is next
March.
Montague also officially approved two new hires -
an Oehrli Elementary special education teacher who started last month
and a food service worker.
