WI School District Sends Police to Parent’s Home Over TikTok Post
Mom's video shows why she now homeschools child. Pittsville district threatens lawsuit.
School lockers. Photo by Phil Roeder (CC BY 2.0)
“This is the moment we decided to homeschool.”
That’s the caption Amanda Vogel wrote on the TikTok video she posted depicting her 4-year-old daughter on stage during a school concert.
“We did not plan to homeschool. We tried our best to set up a good foundation for her to be successful and included at school,” Vogel wrote. “Unfortunately, there is only so much parents can do on their end. Watching her placed off to the side while her peers stood together and realizing no one noticed before the end of the concert was it for us.”
Vogel uploaded the video of the 2023 concert in December 2025, after pulling her daughter from the School District of Pittsville in Wood County.
The video has 917,500 likes and has been shared nearly 28,000 times as of Friday afternoon.
According to the school district officials, Vogel’s video is harassment.
@avogel11 We did not plan to homeschool. We tried our best to set up a good foundation for her to be successful and included at school. Unfortunately, there is only so much parents can do on their end. Watching her be placed off to the side while her peers stood together, and realizing no one noticed before the concert, was it for us. The solution was so simple. A row on the floor that included her. If something this visible was going unnoticed, what else was being missed when we weren’t around? #inclusionmatters #inclusiveeducation #homeschooljourney #parentingmoment ♬ Christmas Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
On Dec. 19, 2025, two days after the video was posted, attorneys for the district sent Vogel a letter demanding she “cease and desist from engaging in any additional harassing and intimidating behavior toward District educators and support staff.”
The district had previously sent Pittsville Police Chief Jeremy Duerr to her house to ask her to take down the TikTok video.
District Administrator Jason Knott said the video led to “misunderstandings, and threats of violence toward the district and its staff, causing the district to contact local law enforcement.”
Knott said people and news organizations have “weighed in on a matter about which they have incomplete and inaccurate information.”
Because of that, the district, its administrators and advisors have received “several disturbing, threatening, profane, and offensive communications related to this matter,” Knott continued in an email to WPR.
Vogel’s attorney, Cory Brewer, with the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, said government officials do not have a right to silence her or send the police to intimidate her.
“This letter was outrageous,” Brewer said. “School district lawyers should know better than to threaten parents for raising concerns about their child’s education and treatment by the school. We will not tolerate intimidation tactics that chill free speech or attempt to silence families who are advocating for their children.”
Brewer said Vogel rejects the demand that she cease and desist in her speech critical of the School District of Pittsville.
After the visits from the police department, she changed her TikTok post from public to private. But she has since made the post public again.
Brewer said Vogel is considering next steps “in defending her right to free speech.”
Wisconsin school district sends police to parent’s home, threatens lawsuit over TikTok post was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
