Brookfield Parents Said School Board Candidate Meant To Trigger Fear In Campaign Video

BROOKFIELD, WI — Brookfield parents said on Tuesday that an Elmbrook school board candidate's comment that Elmbrook schools were turning into "another Chicago" cast a negative view of the city.

Kathy Lim, who is running for a seat on the Elmbrook Board of Education, claimed that the suburbs of Chicago had been "infiltrated" over the past decade. "I don't want to see another Chicago happen again," Lim said in a campaign video posted to YouTube on Friday.

"Chicago education system structure and its dilution of academics due to leading education through social issues as it stands today, is what I am referring to, which can be said about many metropolitan large cities," Lim told Patch in an email.

The video, accompanied by intense music, was meant to instill fear by name-dropping "Chicago," Elmbrook parent Lauren Sanders told Patch. Sanders told Patch moved back to Brookfield from New York to enroll her kids in the school district.

"It's limited in specifics," Sanders added. "People could just hear the name Chicago and not want that. It targets the community in a negative way."

Lim described the Elmbrook school board as a "runaway train" that could only be fixed by the "right people." Sanders, a Brookfield East High School alum, said the video rubbed her the wrong way.

Daniel Medeiros, a Milwaukee Tools engineer who is also running for a seat in the school board, said he didn't know what Lim meant with her Chicago comment but said it was in a detrimental tone.

"I know she is very alarmist, doomsday-like with her language," Medeiros, who is also a Brookfield parent, told Patch in a phone call. "If you talk to most people, they don't think the district is in dire straits."

"Teachers are working so hard, they're here for our kids," Sanders said, adding that she didn't want someone representing the community if they sowed doubt into the institution.

The choice of words like "Chicago" and "hijacking," along with the ad's ominous tone suggest that Lim wanted to undermine public schools instead of building on the district's reputation, Lynne Thomas, an Elmbrook parent, told Patch.

"Chicago is diverse in many different ways, and Brookfield can have this," Sanders said. She added that like in the Windy City, people should celebrate their differences in Elmbrook schools.

The candidate, who moved to Brookfield three and a half years ago, has been outspoken on issues like "critical race theory" and LGBTQ+ education, both in a Patch candidate profile and during school meetings.

Critical race theory is a scholarly framework that argues that federal law has preserved unequal treatment for people of color, The Associated Press reported. There's little evidence the theory itself is being taught in K-12 schools in the U.S.

Amy Margeson, the vice president of quality, ISO and regulatory for Advocate Aurora Health, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she didn't endorse Lim for the Elmbrook school board position, despite Lim citing her in a campaign flyer.

Advocate Aurora's COVID-19 vaccine requirement was an influence on Lim leaving her job at the health system, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Lim's opponent, Daniel Medeiros, supported coronavirus mitigation strategies in schools.