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Lawsuit seeks to require COVID-19 protocols for school districts not currently implementing them

MINOCQUA, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – Northern Wisconsin brewery wants federal judges to require all Wisconsin school districts impose consistent COVID-19 mitigation protocols.

First News at Nine’s Max Cotton explains how it’s hoping to accomplish that. 

“This lawsuit is a template to be able to add all the school districts in the western district that aren’t following CDC guidelines.”

Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad is talking about a lawsuit a Fall Creek parent filed in federal court saying the school district violated her child’s constitutional rights.

According to court filings in the western district of Wisconsin. The district does not have a mask mandate or require a negative COVID-19 test for people to enter its school.

It’s that lack of oversight that led to several students at Fall Creek contracting COVID-19, including her son.

The child then tested positive for the virus on September 27th. Days after a maskless classmates got sick.

Bangstad’s super pack is paying for the suit.

He says the goal isn’t to get after Fall Creek.

It’s to create a class action lawsuit against all school districts not following recommended protocols.

“We’re arguing a public negligence and public nuisance.”

The suit compares Fall Creek’s school to a quote “COVID-19 snake-pit.”

Bangstad says not having protocols probably won’t kill kids since they’re young and healthy.

However. Sick kids can bring the virus home.

“They are now becoming vectors through which this delta variant will explode in communities. So it’s kind of like this manufacturing plant, you know, putting out carcinogens in the air and giving people in the community cancer.”

In Fall Creek, Max cotton, First news at nine. 

The Minocqua Brewing Company super pack is funding a similar lawsuit in Waukesha.

Bangstad says that suit is a placeholder for a potential class-action suit in the US district court in the eastern district of Wisconsin.

We reached out to the fall creek school district for comment on the lawsuit.

The superintendent there said he wasn’t aware of the suit and did not have further comment.