DPI Won't Take Action Against Chippewa Falls District Over Claims of Harassment Despite Appeal by ACLU

Tuesday, January 10th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) -The Department of Public Instruction won't be taking action against the Chippewa Falls School district for claims of harassment of students despite an appeal of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Wisconsin.

DPI says that while Chippewa Falls officials failed to investigate those claims properly, the students involved no longer attend school in the district. ACLU attorney Elizabeth Lambert says there are serious issues that need to be addressed. "My clients put together a complaint that included details of an enormous number of incidents over a period of several years that the school knew about."

That lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Wisconsin last year. ACLU attorney Elizabeth Lambert says an appeal of that ruling was dismissed by DPI. "There were some big, big, big problems with the characterization of events that we presented to DPI. And DPI's take on it was essentially, well, there's nothing that we can do to fix this, because the three main clients have already graduated from the district."

ACLU attorney Elizabeth Lambert says DPI ruled that since her clients have graduated there's no remedy to be had. "So because there's nothing we can do to address the discrimination that they experienced, we're going to give the district a pass and not make the district confront the experiences that students are going through now."

The Chippewa Falls School District did not respond to a request for comment.

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