Education

Memorial Wall protest planned before Holmen School Board meeting

Published

4 years ago

June 22, 2020

A protest is being organized before Monday night’s Holmen School Board meeting to build support for keeping the school’s Memorial Wall.

In mid-June, families of Holmen students who passed before graduation were notified the Memorial Wall was coming down.

A letter from the school district said current construction Holmen High School required removing the wall, and it would not be replaced because it is traumatizing for students and is not a complete representation of those who lost their lives while at Holmen. Linda Murray-Stollenwerk was among the parents who received the notice. After sharing her letter on Facebook, a petition started circulating online to keep the Memorial Wall.

A student-led and student-organized protest against the district’s decision is planned for 5:30 Monday night. Those who attend are asked to wear masks and be prepared to spread out. They will meet at the school and then spread to the street corner of Briggs Road and McHugh Road.

Stollenwerk requested to be added to the school board agenda for Monday, June 22. She and members of the community are set to speak at tonight’s meeting, which starts at 7:00 and can be streamed remotely.

Kaitlyn Riley

Kaitlyn Riley’s passion for communications started on her family’s dairy farm in Gays Mills, Wis. Wanting to share agriculture’s story, she studied strategic communications and broadcast journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, she held officer positions with the Association of Women in Agriculture and Badger Dairy Club while volunteering as a news reporter for the college radio station. She also founded the university’s first agricultural radio talk show, AgChat. In her professional career, Kaitlyn has worked in radio, print and television news doing everything from covering local events to interviewing presidential candidates, and putting back on her barn boots to chat with farmers in the field. Today, Kaitlyn can be seen covering local stories that matter to you in the La Crosse area.