Amy and Dan Wempner pose with their 18-year-old son Armond at their home in Kiel, Wis., on June 2, 2022. After discovering racist Snapchat messages directed at Armond before his junior year of high school, the family pushed the Kiel Area School District to respond. A plan to offer anti-racism training prompted backlash from white parents who accused the school of promoting critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that conservative activists have politically weaponized. Armond ultimately transferred to Fond du Lac High School. (Lianne Milton for Wisconsin Watch)
In 2022 I was the photo editor for a three-part series exploring the roots of racial and gender-related backlash that gripped the small town of Kiel, Wisconsin, which led the community to rally around an embattled superintendent and to the resignation of two extremist school board members. Reported by Mario Koran, with photographs by freelancer Lianne Milton, this series won the 2023 Accountability Award from the Local Independent Online News (LION) Association.