DE PERE, Wis. (WBAY) – A local teacher from West De Pere Middle School has been named one of five winners of Wisconsin’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.

Eighth-grade English language arts teacher, Bethany Counard was given a surprise ceremony during a school assembly this afternoon.

Family, students, and faculty were joined by members of the board of education to give the award.

A teacher can receive this after being nominated by the community for the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation’s “Teacher Fellowship”.

After an interviewing process, five of them are selected for this award.

Counard said she was surprised and left at a loss for words.

“The people that I work with now, have worked with in the past…teaching is such a team profession,” said Counard. “I felt overwhelmed just to hear my name.”

Officials say these five teachers will do one final interview with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for a chance to represent the state at the Council of Chief State School Officer’s National Teacher of the Year program in Washington DC.

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Hmm, how come so many of those tents by the campus occupiers are exactly the same? If I was the police, I’d follow the money trail. That always works. Someone is funding these protestors and pushing their buttons. Another curious observation – why are the protestors wearing masks? It ain’t about COVID. They’re wearing masks because they know that they are doing something illegal and they don’t want to be identified.

The real problem is that these protestors, now including at the UW-Madison, are trying to disrupt classes; even graduations have been canceled at some other campuses, and that’s not fair to the students who worked their butts off for the last 4.5 years.

So here are my thoughts on how to handle these protestors. First, I’ll place a bet that many of these troublemakers are foreigners here on visas. Sooo, let’s cancel the visas. Any foreign protestor who breaks the law should be deported. That starts with revoking their visa. Then suspend the domestic terrorists, err, I mean, students who are breaking the law.

Worse, what really makes me sick is that many of these foreigners may even be here on scholarships – scholarships paid for by you and me – the taxpayers, enabling them to come here and protest. And maybe they even got student loans from our government, too.

Most people don’t know a dirty little secret – that the immigration authorities give universities (even elementary schools) the right to issue their own visas! Yeah, that’s right. Without checking on who they are letting into our country, universities can issue visas like writing a blank check. So while they hire foreigners for high-paying jobs that Americans want, they also issue visas and give away valuable student slots at our taxpayer-funded universities while rejecting Wisconsin residents, the children of hard-working, taxpaying Wisconsin families.

Why? Because the universities want the out-of-state tuition, which is a lot higher than the tuition that we cheeseheads pay. And by the way, why is UW-Madison letting these troublemakers set up camp anyway?

Where is our chancellor? (I’m surprised the university isn’t screaming “insurrection! insurrection!” but of course, they wouldn’t do that unless it was the College Republicans setting up camp and protesting; then the university would take immediate action.) What’s the point of having rules if the university won’t enforce them? But then the D.A. won’t arrest them, and they won’t be prosecuted. So I guess there’s no point, instead, the university will just let this blow up in their face.

Unfortunately, we all know that they won’t be prosecuted, unlike the January 6th protestors who were mercilessly demonized, hunted down weeks and months later, arrested, held without bail, and prosecuted even when they didn’t commit a violent act. But we all know we have a two-tiered justice system. A free pass if you protest in favor of leftist causes; cancellation if you protect in favor of right(eous) causes.

So, the next step is to motivate universities that won’t stand up to internal law-breaking terrorists and trace back the food chain to those funding them. (By their own words and definition, terrorist is the standard they meet.) That next step is to revoke federal and state funding from universities that let these anti-Israel protests continue and revoke the universities’ right to issue visas in the future because if it continues, it’ll end up like the last few times – when protestors firebombed the city-county building, trashed, looted and burned State Street businesses, and bombed Sterling Hall. How quickly we forget.

Remember, not only are we taxpayers funding the public universities, even the private universities like the ivy leagues are public funded too – through their tax exempt status. They don’t pay property taxes or corporate tax on their income.

These students are protesting instead of studying and learning – violating the rules of the universities, trespassing, stirring up trouble – and disgustingly, they are supporting the terrorist group Hamas against the democracy Israel. Hamas attacked the Jews in Israel. It is Israel that is the victim. Do these protestors think that Israel should not defend itself against the murderers and kidnappers? How do they feel about a rape victim? A victim of murder? What if it was their wife or sister or daughter? Would they protest in favor of the criminal then?

Why is it that these whack-jobs always, always defend the criminal? Why, why, why?

Frankly, I’m tired of it. I say clear them out, revoke their visas, suspend their student status, and ship them home.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Demonstrations across the state are calling for Social Security to be protected, modernized, and expanded.

The Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans made a stop in Green Bay on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to increase funding.

Members say without more funding, Social Security will not be able to meet the needs of America’s most vulnerable citizens. Alliance officials say Democratic lawmakers have noticed and agree with their protest, but the alliance is aiming to grab the attention of republican lawmakers, saying both parties should work toward a common goal.

The Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans made 13 stops across the state.

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