Cindy Wiedenhoeft, Whitewater High School

Cindy Wiedenhoeft is the custodian supervisor at Whitewater High School.

She also signed a petition to recall Scott Walker.

It's no surprise that an open records request by Mark Belling reveals that Cindy Wiedenhoeft and two other employees at Whitewater High School, names redacted, DID complain about Mary Taylor's pro-Scott Walker sign.

Mary Taylor is a 68-year-old employee of Diversifed Building Maintenance. The company provides custodial services for the Whitewater public schools.

Taylor's pro-Scott Walker sign on her personal car didn't sit well with some of the anti-Walker bullies at Whitewater.

Taylor says she was told by her employer that DBM was getting complaints about the sign and she had to remove it. When she refused, she was fired.

After Belling talked about Taylor's plight on his radio program, Taylor returned to her job at the school. Although the publicity got Taylor her job back, she had reason to fear vengeance from the Walker haters. Her car was keyed.

A couple of weeks ago, when Mark Belling inquired about the situation, Whitewater District Administrator Eric Runez said no one from the district pressured Diversified Building Maintenance to get Taylor to remove the sign.

Belling's open records request shows that Runez's statement was false.

In his update on the matter, Belling includes portions of a memo written by Cindy Wiedenhoeft.

The memo (with grammatical and spelling errors left intact), read in part: "I think we should have her take it out of the back window before the teachers get out and she yes I think so and we walked in." Wiedenhoeft's memo goes on to say: "We talking when (redacted) came back in and asked who car is out their with that sign in it and we laugh and Jackie (the Diversified supervisor) should I ask her to take out and I yes."

That's really terrible.

Wiedenhoeft comes off as a bully, throwing her weight around, taking away the right of a DBM employee to display a sign on her personal vehicle. Obviously, Wiedenhoeft and others at the school exhibited no tolerance and wouldn't accept a diversity of political opinion.

What great role models for Whitewater students!

Belling writes:

In a separate memo obtained in my records search, Diversified Manager Joan Dedolph wrote: "(Redacted) came to our supervisor Jackie and told her that our employee would have to remove the sign. A few minutes later (redacted) and (redacted) came to Jackie upset about the sign."

So, Whitewater High School employees did complain about Mary Taylor's sign.

The thuggery was not initiated by Diversified Building Maintenance.
_________________

UPDATE, March 16, 2012: Mark Belling won his argument that there was no legal basis for the two other employees to have their names redacted in his open records request.

Here they are:

Deb Brigham-Schmuhl, Art Teacher

Kate Kolak, Spanish Teacher/Speech Teacher

These two public employees, teachers at Whitewater High School, attempted to strip Mary Taylor of her free speech rights.

I wonder if they preach anti-bullying rhetoric to their students.

When one acts like a bully and thug, one doesn't have the moral authority to instruct others not to be a bully and thug.

Awkward.