A second family has come forward to allege that Winneconne High School officials secretly socially transitioned their daughter, referring to her by a male name and using male pronouns first without telling her parents and then against their explicit wishes, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively.
This follows the revelation Monday that a recent Winneconne High School graduate was socially transitioned against his family’s wishes, sparking a huge controversy that led to the sudden resignation of Winneconne Community School District Administrator Peggy Larson and recall efforts against School Board President Kati Calewarts and Vice President Dean Ackmann.
The second student, who graduated several years ago, began exhibiting signs of gender dysphoria in middle school, when she and a friend began telling their peers that they identified as male or gender fluid. The girl’s parents chalked it up to either a passing idea tied to her ongoing mental health issues or part of a broader social contagion surrounding transgender ideology in the early 2020s.
By her junior year of high school, however, the girl’s parents realized that she did not grow out of her desire to be a boy and that Winneconne High School was referring to her by a male name and using male pronouns without telling them. She was given school awards with her male name on them and billed by her male name in school plays and musicals.
Her parents had multiple meetings with counselors and other school officials to discuss the girl’s declining mental state, which began to include incidents of self-harm, but said that all communication from the school ceased when they said they vehemently opposed her socially transitioning.
Their daughter’s grades started to noticeably decline, and friends said she was deeply struggling. However, whenever her parents would try to intervene, she would respond with statements such as “I shouldn’t even listen to you.” The parents interpreted this as part of the school’s messaging to their daughter that since they disapproved of her transition, they were somehow harmful to her mental and physical well-being.
During her senior year, the girl struggled so badly that she was hospitalized for several days, but it wasn’t until just after graduation that she began to recover. She no longer identifies as male and no longer uses a male name or pronouns, a change her parents attribute to her being away from a school and peer group that actively pushed the transgender ideology on her.
Her story is nearly identical to that of a 2026 Winneconne High School graduate, a boy who began using a female name and pronouns at school–something his parents did not learn until they received correspondence from the school identifying their son by his chosen name. They immediately contacted the school, and Larson told them that officials were simply following the district’s guidelines.
Just before the start of the 2024 school year, though, the district changed those guidelines and the school was no longer in compliance. Still, the school continued to refer to the boy by a female name and pronouns against his parents’ explicit wishes. This continued until he graduated in May, receiving two diplomas–one with his birth name and another with his chosen female name.
Shortly afterwards, his mother had a chance encounter with Calewarts and relayed her concerns about what had happened over the past few years. Upon learning about this meeting, a high school employee publicly blasted Calewarts during the public comment portion of a recent school board meeting and incorrectly stated that Calewarts improperly shared information from an investigation with the mother.
That employee was fired, and her supporters turned this into a recall movement against Calewarts and Ackmann, who were trying to stand up for parental rights and investigating Larson and the high school’s actions surrounding the student’s social transition.
That recall effort appears to have stalled as organizers may not have properly gathered signatures, but a final decision on whether a recall election can move forward has yet to be made.
Last week, Larson suddenly resigned her position and released a statement through her attorney referencing the ongoing investigation.
“Peggy understands that records relating to the circumstances preceding her retirement may be released in response to public records requests,” her attorney said. “She wants to be clear that she disagrees with the investigation, its conclusions, and certain assertions made by the investigator. Those conclusions do not reflect Peggy’s understanding of the events or the values that have guided her throughout her career.”
The results of that investigation have not been made public.
