A debate was ignited this week in the Whitnall School District over a new proposed policy regarding chosen names and pronouns. As the school year was getting underway this year, Whitnall School Board member Karen Mikolainis started to get questions from some parents
“In several different classes at Whitnall High School and also at Whitnall Middle School students were being questioned about their gender identity, their use of pronouns, their preferred name,” she said.
Mikolainis told WTMJ that prior to hearing from these parents, she wasn’t aware that was a thing that was happening in district schools. In fact, she thought it was quite the opposite.
“What I had been told in the past by administration is that our staff is advised not to solicit gender identity information from students,” she said.
She immediately began thinking about introducing a policy addressing this issue but was concerned about writing it from scratch. That led her to the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), a conservative group that has produced a number of model policies for school boards – including on this issue.
The model policy that Mikolainis introduced to the board said that “parents have the right to determine the name and pronouns that staff use to refer to
their children while at school … with written authorization needed from parents for a change in either.”
WILL Attorney Cory Brewer wrote the policy that Mikolainis introduced to the board. She told WTMJ the concerns Mikolainis was hearing are not uncommon.
“WILL crafted the policies primarily in response to hearing from parents and school board members around the state and this is also happening around the country,” she said.

“These model policies are public resources, all out in the open, and we’re hoping that these will serve as guidelines for school boards who want to include more parental involvement,” Brewer said.
At the school board meeting on September 11, the policy raised immediate concerns from schoold board members. Mikolainis said that the issue was with using an “off-the-shelf policy” which was not supported by a majority of board members. No action was taken to vote on this or any policy regarding gender identity at the meeting.
A large number of concerns were also raised by parents in attendance. While some letters were read in support of the policy, every single parent who took the mic was opposed.
“As a school district, student safety should be our number one priority,” said parent Sarah Blonsky at the meeting.
Blonsky told WTMJ she keeps up with the school board regularly, and heard about the policy a few days before. She said to her, it came out of nowhere, and she started organizing parents in the district to speak out against the policy at the meeting.
“When they released the public notice, I saw this policy was on there,” she said. “And as soon as I saw the policy, my heart just completely dropped.”
Blonsky said she believes that adopting the WILL policy would be harmful to transgender and non-binary children in the Whitnall School District. Mikolainis says that wasn’t her intention when introducing the policy.
With the WILL policy rejected by the board, what’s next?
“I as an individual member am going to be working on looking at drafting some options, looking at what our neighboring districts who have passed either policies or administrative guidelines have done,” Mikolainis said. “And then try to creatively come up with a second proposal that will try to satisfy the majority of people.”
Mikolainis said the core issues she is trying to address will remain: she doesn’t want the teachers to keep secrets from parents. Blonsky said she is also supportive of a policy on this issue since there are no guidelines in the Whitnall School district at the moment. But she said that it’s important to acknowledge that keeping students safe may mean keeping them safe from their parents.
“Sometimes they just might not be accepting and they might make someone feel bad about themselves,” she said. “Or they might be very religious and say it’s immoral and they’re going to go to hell. The reality of this is it’s a very complex issue, but at the heart of it we need to be protecting our students. We need to be keeping them safe and we need to be making sure they feel welcomed and cared about and loved for who they are.”
With the issue not settled by the school board, it will continue to draw a lot of community involvement in the Whitnall School District and around the state. And that’s something both Blonsky and Mikolainis agree on.
“It’s hard work, but it’s important,” Mikolainis said.
TOP HEADLINES FROM THE WTMJ NEWS TEAM:
- Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin plans to restore abortion services
- Cubanitas celebrates a major milestone to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month
- Brewers add Northwestern Mutual patch to jerseys immediately, partner to combat childhood cancer
- After Senate vote, WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe vows to stay in her role until the legal process plays out
WATCH: Giannis & Mariah highlight National Diaper Need Awareness Week with Milwaukee Diaper Mission