It's Wisconsin Today, I'm Rob
Ferrett.
And I'm Kate Archer-Kent.
Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan
pleaded not guilty yesterday
to charges of obstructing a
federal agency and concealing a
person from immigration officers.
A group of protesters gathered
outside the courthouse calling for
dismissal of charges.
Here's Voces de la Frontera
executive director Christine Númen
Ortiz at that gathering.
We know this is not just about
one judge.
It's an intimidation tactic.
It's a disgusting spectacle
of authoritarianism that's
directed to all judges in this
country.
Dugan's lawyers have also filed a
motion to dismiss the charges,
arguing that the case is
unconstitutional.
John Diedrich has been covering the
Dugan case. He's an investigative
reporter for the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel.
John, welcome back to Wisconsin
today.
Thanks for having me.
You were at Dugans appearance in
federal court this week.
Talk us through very short.
I understand, but a lot went on
there.
Yeah, so she did appreciate the
clip. She did enter a plea that's
very standard. At this point, they
also set out the
dates for the trial.
These will probably change most
likely. But right now, the trial
dates set for the 21st
of July. She's due back in court
on July 9th.
But as you mentioned, there's this
motion, though, that's out there,
and that's really gonna probably be
the beginning of the whole process
is her team is pushing for
consideration, and arguing that this
is an illegal prosecution
and pushing for that motion to be
ruled on right away.
Let's talk about that motion.
If this motion carried and
went through, and I imagine it could
probably be appealed, but if it's
ultimately successful, that means no
trial, right? The not guilty plea
doesn't matter.
The trial never happens if this
motion to dismiss is
ultimately successful.
Do I have that right?
Yeah, so yeah.
So if it does, you know, but like
you say, an appeal is likely.
So we've got several levels.
We're at the magistrate level right
now. Then we have a district court
level. That's also in Milwaukee.
Ultimately, it seems likely talking
to observers and legal experts that
this will end up at the Seventh
Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago,
no matter how it goes, because the
side that loses it seems
at this point is likely to appeal.
Now, a not-guilty plea on
top of that motion to dismiss,
are we at a stage where
in either of those, the motion to
the dismiss or the not-Guilty plea,
Dugan's lawyers are saying why.
They're making their legal argument
for either or both of those things.
Yeah, so what they're saying is that
in the immunity plea or
an immediate emotion that they're
saying the motion to dismiss there's
immunity as a judge.
So what happened just briefly is
April 18th, Judge Dugan
escorted a
defendant who was in court and his
attorney out a door, which is not
normally used by the public.
The allegation by the government is
this was an effort
to elude justice.
Their argument from the defense is
that this is normal.
Judges control courtroom and
what doors people go in and out of
and so forth.
And so they're saying that she
has immunity for what she did in
court that day and also that
the feds or federal prosecutors are
overreaching, that they're getting
into areas of what is.
Uh... Delegated uh...
States rights under the uh...
Tenth uh...
Amendment to the constitution and
so it and uh...
In the back story here really is
that this is a major legal fight
brewing i mean uh...
Judge dougan has four law firms
uh...
Uh... Represent her at some level
there seven attorneys of
record arm that's steepest
you pick the former u s attorney who
incidentally was appointed by a
republican uh...
And uh... In also paul clement
of the uh...
Former u s solicitor general so she
is a very high-power team it
certainly does not appear as though
anything other than a long fight
looms ahead
You wrote some about the tone in the
courtroom during, again, this brief
appearance.
We might imagine it's
super-confrontational, but that's
not what you saw there.
No, sometimes I think
from the outset you see the
public statements and certainly
there's a lot out there, there was a
lot happening in front of the
courthouse yesterday with
demonstrators as you alluded to.
But inside, it was very collegial,
I mean it's an acting U.S.
Attorney, Rick Frulling, Richard
Frullin, he actually worked for
Biscupic under George W.
Bush so they know each other very
well.
And Mr. Frulliing greeted
all the members of the team.
They were, it
was polite and
even pleasant, you know, and the
backdrop is yes, it is super serious
on a number of levels,
but the demeanor in court certainly
was.
You know, there were pleasantries
exchanged for sure.
Talking to John Diedrich from the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
He's covering the case of Milwaukee
County Judge Hannah Dugan facing
federal charges.
This is unusual, John.
This is not something we see all the
time. The Fed's prosecuting a
state judge.
You've been looking into some,
looking for some comparable cases
around the country.
What did you see? How rare is this?
Well, it is, and that's very well
put, rare, like maybe the
second of its time in modern
history.
There was a case in the first
Trump administration against the
Massachusetts judge.
The circumstances are similar.
There are some differences, but they
actually are pretty remarkably
similar.
A state judge there in Massachusetts
who was charged
with helping a
undocumented immigrant elude federal
immigration officers.
Ultimately, that's
Shelley Joseph, ultimately, her
case...
Played out a little bit differently.
She was not arrested, as Judge Dugan
was in the courthouse, but was
ordered in.
But ultimately, that case was
dismissed after Joe
Biden was elected president and the
new U. S. Attorney was in place.
But some of the same issues that
came up are coming up there.
There was an immunity claim at that
point. There were constitutional
claims that were made so similar.
But, ultimately, those
were not ruled upon because the case
was dismiss before they could have.
But really, it's
do get charged with things.
I mean, taking bribes and, you know,
assaults and all sorts of manner of
things. But what this is alleging is
that the judge, in the normal course
of their duty, broke
federal law.
You know, like in their courtroom,
on the record, doing what they do as
judges. That is highly unusual
to in modern U.S.
History.
We heard from that protest
outside there, the connection being
made between this case and
arguments that the Trump
administration and other Republicans
are intimidating judges.
Now, again, in the limited time in
the courtroom,
do you get a sense that people are
looking over their shoulder at that
wider conversation or is this
really narrow, this case, the
particulars, the laws involved?
Well, you know, it's a really
interesting question.
I think the lens really matters who
you are, the politics in this.
I have talked, I spoke to a number
of judges.
You know, some would say, hey, like,
this was a particular fact check
that isn't likely to happen again,
and you know really focusing on the
actions. But I think there is,
depending on who the judge is and
sort of where they sit, there is
some second guessing, you what's
going on in the courtroom.
And because in Milwaukee County,
as well in other courtrooms,
federal officials, federal
immigration officers are coming into
court. What they're doing is they
are matching cases of people
who are in the U.S., they say
illegally, and they're in the
courthouse for some reason.
And so that sort of sense is
creating some sense of, I
would say, dis-ease among some
judges in
that way.
I did also say that there is,
you know, the way this case is
read really depends.
I mean, I'm getting emails from
people, it's almost like they're not
talking about the same case.
It just really is highlighting a lot
of polarization.
And I should also say that there's a
number of readers that I'm hearing
from who see some of both.
They actually do see, you know, some
of the nuance and some
of in between, you know, in this
case, which is fascinating and
has grabbed such national attention
here.
With the charges involved?
If the case goes to trial, if Judge
Dugan is found guilty, potentially
what are the punishments
possible in charges like this?
Yeah, so there's two counts, as you
alluded. One's a felony, one's a
misdemeanor. Together, six years
of exposure.
Unlikely, just at the outset,
and that's only if she were
convicted on both counts.
But it is highly unlikely for
somebody like Judge Dugan, who's
a first-time nonviolent offender
in federal court, to receive that
sort of time.
But, you know, it does happen.
And there are, by color,
that's sort of what this case
is called, sort of in shorthand.
These kinds of cases sometimes
result in time behind
bars.
You know, the trial judge is Judge
Adelman.
He used to be a Democratic state
senator, as some listeners will
recall.
So, you know, that's getting way
down the road, but yeah, that is the
exposure that she would have on this
case.
And of course, we can't predict
there are so many possible twists
and turns along the way.
Is there any thought that there
might be a plea deal reached?
Does either side appear to be
floating the idea of, hey, let's
resolve this before we go through
all this rigmarole?
That does not appear to be the case
of all the uncertainty in now just
again from the outside and both
teams are not Really talking much
they're talking more through their
you know filings and so forth But
all indications at this point seem
to be a you know, a big
fight without Discussion
of a you, know of a plea deal
You know the state,
you know main justice in Washington
is involved with this the FBI
director tweeted on this case So
it has very high visibility back
to Washington And then just
looking at Judge Dugan's team, I
mean, she has a
remarkable legal team.
I mean I was talking with some folks
yesterday.
I cannot recall a local case
that had so many, you
know, high-powered lawyers attached
So at this point, things could
change, it could change quickly, but
at this point it certainly does not
seem that a resolution such
as a plea agreement are to work.
A big legal team there.
Now, John, you're in Milwaukee,
General Sentinel. This is your beat.
Of course, you are at this trial.
Are you seeing some of our
colleagues in the national media
showing up at key moments in this
trial? Is it getting that level of
national attention?
Oh yeah, for sure.
I mean, yesterday in the courtroom,
there were 30, well, I
don't know, everybody who's a
reporter, I have a pretty good sense
in time. You have a reporter.
You have a reporter DAR, the Radar
for Reporters.
That's right. Most most
people in the gallery of about 30
people were reporters.
We had a couple of sketch artists in
court because there's no cameras, of
course, outside lots of media,
you know, for the indictment
when we were there.
You know, New York Times, Washington
Post, Wall Street Journal.
Everybody is looking at this
because of the unusual nature
of it. And also it feels
like an important moment.
You know the conflict that the Trump
administration has with the judges
works on a couple different levels.
Some are like what's before the
Supreme Court.
That's over the rulings and then
this feels a little bit different
but it's being sort of like brought
together as an overall
template.
So yeah, the net to your question,
yes, lots of national media
attention. And the court is and
the court staff has not seen this
sort of attention in the federal
courthouse in downtown Milwaukee in
a long time.
So there's some sort of
extraordinary things that they're
trying to plan for for a trial that
could take a week.
That's what the U.S.
Attorney said yesterday.
And it would be highly
covered if that trial
does come to pass.
John, we'll leave it there.
Thanks again for joining us today.
My pleasure. Thank you.
That's John Diedrich, investigative
reporter for the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel. He talked to us about the
Milwaukee County Judge Hannah
Dugan's ongoing court case
and watching for the next milestones
in that case.
Coming up on Wisconsin Today,
transgender health care is in flux.
A Wisconsin speech-language
pathologist describes their work in
gender-affirming voice therapy.
When people are able to make changes
in their voice and communication
that better aligns with their
identity, they often
have improved quality of life
and improved overall happiness.
On WPR News.
It's Wisconsin Today.
I'm Kate Archer-Kenn.
And I'm Rob Barrett.
Twelve bills that target transgender
rights are moving through the state
legislature that's according to the
Trans Legislation Tracker.
These bills have the potential to
impact how transgender people in
Wisconsin participate in sports,
use their preferred name and
pronouns, and access
gender-affirming medical care.
And they're particularly focused on
trans youth.
At the federal level, President
Trump has signed executive orders
affecting the lives of transgender
people. One seeks to ban access
to gender-affirming care for youth
under the age of 19.
For a look at how these efforts are
affecting people's lives.
We're joined by Elise Kaylee,
president of the Washburn-Shawamagun
Bay Chapter of P-Flag.
That's an organization supporting
LGBTQ people and their families.
Elise, welcome back to Wisconsin
Today.
Thanks for having me, Kate.
Can you talk broadly about
how you and people
in your community are reacting to
bills, to executive orders,
to things that are targeting
transgender people right now?
What does it feel like?
It's a lot of doom scrolling
and seeing what's happening next.
It's looking at what might
be happening.
And just any time you have
to plan something, figuring out
what's the safest way for
me to go to the family
reunion where my grandmother's ashes
are going to be scattered.
Well, that reunion and memorial
is in Florida.
So what do I
do? Do I...
Answer the call of nature outside
for the whole week I'm down there?
Do I go into
the women's room where
I might pass and where, after all,
all my paperwork says I should be
going? Or do I
go into the men's room, which is
what the law in Florida demands,
and get jumped?
And above all, how many
of my friends and especially
my husband are
waiting to get
gender confirmation health care
and that could be stripped away
any day now, you know?
So we're all very, very frightened
about that.
Let's talk more about
gender-affirming health care,
which is one of the areas that is
being targeted not only
at the state level, but the federal
level.
What are the ripple effects?
What are the consequences if
people can't get access to this
care?
You know, the more restrictions
there are, the worse health
care outcomes are going to be,
and the more
trans people are going be at
physical risk.
Not merely because the
personal health consequences
of being stuck in the wrong body
are serious and
dangerous in of themselves,
but because
possibility of
random violence from
transphobic people noticing
us.
So obviously everyone
should feel comfortable in their own
body and should be able to feel
good about themselves.
That's most important and
doctor after doctor has confirmed
that gender dysphoria is real
and trans people who seek the
ability to medically transition
should be supported.
But now we're seeing
so many restrictions,
especially on
those forms of
transition care that
protect, that give us the best
protection from
random acts of violence.
Specifically the attempts to
ban care for people
below a certain age, which keeps
going up.
First it's 16, then it's 18, then it
19, then 30.
You see where they're going.
They're trying to make people wait
longer and longer before being
able to transition, which,
especially for trans women like me,
means that later in life it'll be a
lot harder for us to be
seen as anything other than
trans, which can be very dangerous.
It's not something we should have to
be ashamed of.
But the ability to pass
can mean the difference between life
and death and often does.
We've talked before about how
your community around you
in the area, in Washburn,
Shawamagun Bay area, has been
supportive of you, that you
feel, you know, you have
connections in the community.
But it's also a rural area.
And I'm wondering, does that add
an additional barrier to finding
services that support transition?
I think ordinarily it would,
but we've got a
really good set of
clinics in this region, the
North Lakes Clinic, and
they really have excellent
support for trans patients.
So I've actually
had much better
experiences with them than I've
had with the doctors who
first helped me out.
I guess, you know.
10 years ago.
But yeah, so I will say the medical
experiences I've had here have been
the best of my life, but that is
definitely not true
for everyone in
rural areas.
Then you have to consider how
many people in rural area rely
on Medicaid, not just
for gender-affirming care,
but for everything.
And that has the knock-on effect
of much
of the health care in this
region depends on Medicaid
dollars.
Otherwise they wouldn't have enough
paying patients to be able to
stay open.
So as Medicaid is threatened
for one reason or another,
that's a threat to us.
Not just those of us who use or
have used Medicaid or BadgerCare
directly, but those
of who just use any
health care because funding
health care funds us all.
How is PFLAG
in this moment in
helping people navigate these times
and connect to resources
and support systems?
Well, our biggest project right
now is scholarships
for LGBT and
ally students going on to higher
education.
We know that a lot
of particular programs
are being cut.
We know there are a lot schools are
under attack and
we want to make it easier
for people who have
taken risks for the queer community.
To go on to school.
We've also recently received a very
generous donation specifically to
fund applicants for tech
colleges, which is
terrifically important.
And I think every town
needs more LGBT mechanics,
every town need more LGBT plumbers.
Uh, you know, uh,
so we're, we're over the moon about
that and trying to get more people
out there. Uh, other than that,
um, we are about to start the
season for our LGBT Fishing
Club, Queers on Piers.
I love it.
I love that.
That's amazing.
You talk about
traveling to Florida,
crossing state lines when things
could get really difficult for
you and scary.
Are you hopeful that there will be
change in a positive way
in the future, in a positive
direction, so that crossing
state lines isn't
potentially harmful?
So I'm afraid I must say no,
I don't think it will get better.
Why is that?
Because so many systems of
control and oppression depend
on people fearing and hating
us, whether that's
enforcing the
social rules that undergird
sexism and male
chauvinism or just
general homophobia or any
kind of a
devotion to a particular
way of living that someone thinks
a deity has ordained.
It's a lot harder
to enforce any of
those systems without having
someone who
you can spread all
of these fears
around.
Someone that you can feel good
about hurting.
And I can't see things getting
any better for uh,
sore for many of the other people
who are in danger now.
Elise, thank you for this
conversation.
Thank you for joining us.
Oh, thank you for the time, Kate.
It's always a pleasure.
And I just hope everyone can find a
place where they can be safe and
love.
That is Elise K.
Lee, president of the
Washburn-Shawamagan Bay Chapter of
PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy
organization.
Now we'll focus on one component
of gender-affirming care, which is
voice therapy.
The American Speech-Language Hearing
Association has come out in
opposition to government efforts
that restrict access to gender-
affirming care and clinicians'
ability to provide that care.
We're joined now by one such
clinician.
Maya Braden is a clinical associate
professor and speech language
pathologist at UW Madison.
Maya, welcome to Wisconsin Today.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.
Start by explaining what is
gender-affirming vocal care?
What does your work involve?
Interforming vocal care is anything
that helps people
to achieve a voice that is
congruent with their gender identity
and that might involve
changing the pitch of their voice.
It might involve change the timbre
or resonance or qualities of the
voice.
It can also involve articulation
and the way that we pronounce words,
the way we change our
vocal intonation up and down,
even things such as gestures,
word choice, the we use language,
our body language.
All of those things could be
incorporated into gender-affirming
voice. And it really is
individualized to each client that
we work with.
So everyone might have a different
path to getting to the voice that
is theirs in the end.
I'm curious about this path.
Is achieving an authentic
voice, is that a journey?
Does this work take weeks,
years?
Yeah, it's different for everyone,
but it's usually not instant.
There are strategies that people can
adapt pretty quickly, but
when you're changing anything that
is almost an automatic,
if you think about when you talk,
when you speak, when you
sing, we don't think a lot about
exactly how we're doing it.
And so when you make changes in
that, you might be able to make the
changes quickly, but most people
find that it takes more time for
those to become more
natural, more
habitual.
And think about how our voice has
changed when we heard that little
recording on the tape recorder of
us singing a song when we are like
three four years old and you think
who is that person is that
really me?
How does a voice change and
what is the impact of like
hormones.
Yeah, so I don't know how scientific
you want me to get on this, but our
voices do change over time.
You know, babies have very, very
tiny short vocal folds, which means
that they vibrate very fast at very
high pitches.
And as we grow, those vocal
folds get longer and thicker,
and our necks get longer.
And so the vocal folds
as they bigger and
longer, our voice deepens.
And when people go through
testosterone-influenced puberty,
as assigned male at birth usually
do, they will have more
rapid changes in their pitch right
around that 12 to 18 years.
It can drop by about an octave.
Those who are assigned female at
birth don't have as much of a
change, but we still do have a
slight change and our voice gets
a little bit lower and also our
range expands a little as we get
older. And then there are other
age-related changes that have to do
with hormones as we get to midlife
and as we age that
can change pitch and quality.
Considering the range of services
you offer your clients, how
is gender-affirming voice therapy
similar or different from other
types of voice therapy you do?
So we use some of the same
techniques, and that's how I came
into doing this.
So when we're doing voice therapy,
for example, for people with vocal
injuries, we might do
things to modify their resonance, to
modify how hard their vocal folds
contact when they make sound,
how they're using their voices, and
those kinds of things. And some of
those same strategies might be used
for gender-affirming a voice as
well.
Do all speech-language pathologists
offer these types of services?
No, there is some specialized
training and experience that goes
into it.
So when we graduate with our
master's degree, we are officially
trained in everything.
But at the same time, we are sort
of generalists.
And then as we go farther into our
careers, we all do continuing
education every year.
And some of us might choose to do
more focus in gender-affirming voice
or general voice or child language
or fluency, all kinds of different
areas. And to do
gender-affirming voice.
You should have additional training
beyond just the master's degree in
speech language pathology, but
it is part of everyone's scope of
practice.
When a person's voice
doesn't align with
their gender identity or how they
want to be perceived to the world,
what effect does that have on a
person self-worth
and on their quality of life?
I mean, it really does.
If you think about how much our
voice is sort of that
external representation of us,
anytime our voice doesn't match
who we feel we are, it can
be extremely distressing.
There's research, not a
ton, looking at quality of life, but
there's a paper that just came out
recently specifically looking
at people's goals in
voice and how having that voice
that matches their gender identity,
that matches the internal voice is
really important?
And when people don't have
that, they can feel internally
distressed. There can also be
external factors, when they are
misgendered on the phone or in
person, or even feelings of
safety, their actual safety
concerns of having a voice
that maybe doesn't match you.
And we also know that when people
are able to make changes in their
voice and communication,
that better aligns with their
identity.
They often have improved
quality of life and improved
overall.
Happiness.
So what are the benefits of doing
this in a clinical setting
versus trying to do
this on one's own?
I think there are advantages either
way.
So doing it on your own,
it's more economical.
It can do it on you own time.
But a lot of people do find that
they feel a little bit lost in that.
There are a lot resources out there.
There are the lot of internet
videos.
But being able to work with
somebody one-on-one to
really tailor it to your goals, your
voice, make sure that you're doing
it in a way that is not just
sounding the way you want it to, but
feeling good and being.
Healthy and sustainable and not
too tiring, I think are some
advantages of working one on one
with somebody.
Can you talk a bit about pitch?
One factor that you work with,
you know, someone might want their
voice to sound higher or lower
depending on how they want to
express themselves, but what
can you do there to
help find, you know to help them
find that pitch?
Yeah.
First I want to say that there is a
wide range of pitch that can be
identified as male,
female, masculine, feminine.
You can have two people who have
almost exactly the same average
pitch who are very clearly
identifiable as masculine or
feminine.
So there's quite a bit of overlap.
At the same time, usually one of the
first things we do is measure
someone's current speaking pitch,
measure their range, and
when we start working on pitch,
which is usually not the first thing
we work on.
When we start working on pitch, we
find a pitch that is achievable
that fits within that range that
is identified as their gender.
And so there are some studies that
show about 145
hertz is about the lowest average
that can be reliably identified
as feminine.
And I'm probably
speaking at about 190 Hz.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Is there technology that measures
that? Do you have some devices
that you use?
Yes, we have.
Okay.
Fancy devices in the clinic but
there are also free apps.
So people often will just download
an app onto their phone that will
measure their pitch and tell
them what their speaking pitch is
and then they can also look at a
target and kind of match it to
within that range as well.
What is demand like for
gender-affirming voice therapy?
You've been in this line of work
a long time.
It's variable.
I think there's
always demand.
I think people, as they
find out more about the
opportunities for it, there might be
increased demand.
Most voice clinics within the
country do some gender-affirming
voice.
But I know also the
clinic at UW has done it since at
least the 1990s, and there's been
demand since then.
Gender-affirming care nationwide
is under the microscope.
Does that affect how
you do your work
and how you care for your
clients?
I'm going to optimistically say it's
not directly affecting my work right
now, except in how
people are feeling.
I think I'm
definitely seeing a lot more
worry, fear,
and if
anything, it makes me want to go out
and do more of it.
But I think people
are felling like they're in some
ways, in a
lot of ways, under attack and
worried about whether those services
are still going to be there.
You can hear those emotions in
people's voices.
Yes, definitely.
Maya, thank you so much for joining
us.
You're welcome, thanks for having
me.
Maya Braden is a clinical associate
professor and speech language
pathologist at UW-Madison.
We talked about gender-affirming
voice therapy and the work of
aligning a person's voice with their
gender identity to achieve their
authentic voice.
And earlier, we talked with Elise
Kaleet, president of the
Washburn-Shawamagun Bay P-flag
Chapter about efforts to limit
access to gender- affirming
healthcare.
Still ahead on Wisconsin Today, a
Rhinelander Elementary school
installs a speech board on the
playground.
It has some different symbols
on it with vocabulary
specific to words
that our children would use on the
playground to help them better
communicate.
A new communication tool for
recess that's next on WPR
News.
You're listening to Wisconsin Today,
I'm Rob Ferrett.
And I'm Kate Archer-Kent.
Now it's time for Wisconsin Life.
Here's producer Maureen McCollum
with a story about appreciating
a particular plant in springtime.
Spring has a way of energizing
the five senses.
And when it comes to the sense of
smell, there are a few scents
that we only have a brief time to
enjoy, like the lilacs.
Author Chris Hardy brings us this
essay on the sweet smell of spring.
When lilacs last in the dooryard
bloomed, and the great star
early drooped in the western sky
in the night, I mourned,
and yet shall mourn, with ever
returning spring.
Walt Whitman.
There are a few magical weeks every
May where Mother Nature's perfume
fills the air.
She wears essence of lilac,
an intoxicating and alluring
fragrance.
It permeates our souls,
lifts old hearts, and washes
away her winter cruelty.
It is the smell of spring.
Some springs our lilac season is
cut short when Mother Nature
decides to give us a frost,
depriving us of her sweet fragrance.
Such was the case last year when a
hard freeze in mid-May killed
most of the blossoms on our lilacs
and on our apple trees.
Although we're still flirting with
frost, she's made up for it this
year.
Our lilacs, and those around the
countryside, seem to be in
spectacular bloom, or
perhaps I'm just noticing it more
this year!
We can thank the European Balkan
countries for bringing us the lilac,
which comes from the Persian word
meaning bluish.
The common lilac is called
Syringa vulgaris and
has florets with four petals
that grow in clusters called
panicles.
Lilacs are a member of the olive
family, similar to other
ornamentals like forsythia and
privet.
Anyone who has transplanted lilacs
knows how incredibly hardy the
plants are.
They were carried along the trading
routes from the Ottoman Empire into
Europe by the 1500s.
And then brought to North America by
settlers.
George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson grew lilacs.
New Hampshire designated the purple
lilac as its official state flower
in 1919 because
it symbolizes the hearty character
of the citizens of the Granite
State.
Lilac bushes can live for hundreds
of years.
Lilac essential oil has medicinal
value and it is used in
aromatherapy to fight depression and
increase relaxation.
I always remember having lilacs on
the farm.
Twenty years ago, my wife Sherry and
I dug up some sucker plants from
a stand on a nearby homestead
farm.
Those have now spread into an
impressive lilac hedge in
front of our house.
We enjoy the flowering crab trees
and the blooms on the wild plum and
other fruit trees as well.
The pinks, purples, reds, and whites
brighten the greening landscape.
But I prefer
the lilac.
Perhaps it's because I admire its
tough nature.
Ours have survived drought,
45 below zero temperatures,
and everything else, and yet
have endured and flourished.
We need that kind of fortitude in
Wisconsin.
Since lilacs are not native to North
America, when you see stands
of lilacs in the country,
someone planted them.
Since they live so long, they are
a great clue to locating where there
was once a farmhouse or some
kind of human activity nearby.
Sometimes when I see a lilac hedge
in the middle of nowhere, I wonder
about who planted them, what lives
they led, and why they left.
Perhaps the long-departed return
on warm spring nights to
savor the sweet bouquet, if
only for a moment.
It only seems like a moment
when the lilacs bloom.
Life moves fast, and soon
it will be summer.
Be sure to stop and smell
the lilac.
Chris Hardy is an author who lives
in Taylor, and that story on Lilacs
came from his book Back Home,
Country Tales Through the Seasons.
Wisconsin Life is a co-production of
Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS
Wisconsin.
Additional support comes from Lola
Mary Peterson of Appleton.
Find more Wisconsin Life at
wisconsinlife.org and on Facebook
and Instagram.
I'm Maureen McCollum.
This is Wisconsin Today.
Students with disabilities can
sometimes have trouble connecting
with their peers and reaching their
full potential in the classroom.
Some Wisconsin educators are getting
creative with tools that make
school more inclusive and accessible
for every student's needs.
In Rhinelander, Central Elementary
School has installed a speech board
on its playground to help non-verbal
students communicate and make
friends.
Maddie Sawinski is a speech
therapist at Central Elementary
School who helped get the
communication tool installed.
Maddie, welcome to Wisconsin Today.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Can you first explain what
this nonverbal speech board is?
Yeah, so it is
a vinyl poster-like
board that we have on our
playground here at my elementary
school and it has
some different symbols on it
with vocabulary specific
to words
that our children would use on the
playground to help them
better communicate because
we have some students who are
non-speaking or don't use verbal
speech yet.
To communicate.
They have an electronic
communication device usually to
help them communicate
their message.
And sometimes it's a little bit
bulky or not very easy for
them to carry that around on the
playground.
So this communication board is
another option for them
to use to communicate
to their peers and their teachers.
Can you give an example of
a symbol that gets used
on this board?
Yeah, so there's a
few different like pronouns.
So a student could make a message
saying I want
a drink because it's really
hot outside.
I've seen that used
recently. So they could communicate
to the teacher, you know, I'm hot,
I want to drink, or
I want, I
need to go to the bathroom.
Stuff like that they communicate or
about specific equipment.
So like we have real pictures
of our.
Slide, our swings,
our tunnel that we have.
So if they got hurt on something,
they could maybe say like hurt
on the swings or something like
that.
A lot of different messages they can
use with our vocabulary
that we had.
Right, because playgrounds seem like
a place where communication is so
key. Who gets to use the
swings, or who's next in line
for another piece of
equipment? And kids need to
negotiate and also talk
with the teacher on the playground.
Is this board helping to
serve those playground interactions?
For sure, because we do have
some messages or some symbols
on there for turn
taking. So they could say my turn or
your turn or,
you know, to communicate to one
of their friends. You know, I don't
want to play tag anymore.
I want swings or
different messages like that.
So it's really helping with some of
those peer interactions that
we try and target at the younger
age, the 4k.
Age especially, turn taking
and social interactions is something
that we've seen really
kind of take off and benefit from
our board on the playground.
Yeah, what has the playground
been like since the board was
established and has its
place on the playground?
Yeah, it's been really
cool to see all of
the students use it and
interact with it.
This board, it
really benefits those students
who are non-speaking and
who use a communication device,
but really it's just good for
all kids to have and to be
exposed to.
There's the alphabet, there's
the numbers, there's
American Sign Language symbols on
it. So just exposing all
of our students to those things.
And it's just been really cool to
see them be
interested in that.
You know, they've seen some
words, like sight words
that they learn in the classroom
too. They're like, hey, Miss Maddie,
I see, you know, I, that's a
sight word.
It's been really to see all
students use it and interact with
it.
They're just, they love looking at
it and they're really excited to use
it.
I wonder why give these tools for
nonverbal communication instead
of just trying to make
students speak out loud?
How does giving them these tools
help in their growth and
development?
Yeah, so some
students just,
you know, some students are non-speaking
and they just aren't able to
use verbal speech yet.
And that's okay because,
you now, all forms of
communication are valid
and accepted.
You know, whether that's
verbal speech or whether that using
an AAC device, a communication
board or, you
no, a tablet or something like that.
That's all.
It's a way to communicate and we
shouldn't be, you know, like forcing
students to talk verbally.
So it's just another option for them
to use.
You know, so it's been really great
that they get so many different
options on the playground with their
device or the board or some of
them know ASL to use all
those different modalities.
Maddie, thank you so much for
joining us!
You're welcome. Thank you for having
me again.
That is Maddie Sawinski,
a speech therapist at Central
Elementary School in Rhinelander.
She was with us to talk about a new
speech board her school put up on
the playground to help non-verbal
students communicate with their
peers.
Now we're taking a step back and
looking more broadly at the kinds of
tools and interventions that help
make Wisconsin classrooms more
accessible for students with
disabilities.
Denise Clark is a special and
early childhood education professor
at UW Oshkosh and a
former special education teacher at
the middle and elementary school
level.
Denise, welcome to Wisconsin Today.
Thank you.
How are new
tools like this Playground
tool we heard Maddie talk about,
nonverbal communication board,
how do you see these tools improving
support for students' needs?
Yes, this augmentative communication
device is really a
fantastic option,
and we want to
encourage as many ways
for students to communicate as
possible.
This kind of visual communication
really assists in
developing
verbal communication, as
well as is a
wonderful tool for students who
are nonverbal.
How much do accessibility
tools tend to focus on
the learning materials, the
classroom stuff, versus the social
development and the peer
communication that might happen on
a playground?
Or do those efforts
kind of cross over with one another?
Yes, special education teachers as
well as related service
providers, including speech language
teachers and pathologists
work really hard in
all of those areas and
communication is critical absolutely
for their participation in
academics, but also
for facilitating relationships,
certainly for safety and
the playground is an excellent
example of a place that that would
be the case.
And so they
have to work
collaboratively to
develop augmentative
communication and
skills that students
need in all
of those areas, both academics,
social, self-advocacy.
How can
teachers make these accessibility
tools really
inclusive as part of the school,
as part of the classroom
environment, and preventing them
from becoming something that perhaps
stigmatizes a student for
their needs.
Yeah, making differences
in the ways that we communicate
and the ways that we learn normal
and part of everyday life
from early on and throughout
education is exactly
the best practice that we want to
do.
Special education is
a support as are the related
services and they don't have
to be in a
different place.
We can have all of the
students learn together.
And research shows us that
there are greater gains both
for students with and without
disabilities when
students all learn together.
Denise, you mentioned earlier that
schools are under stress, that there
are strains.
What do you mean by that?
Well, I think that there
are a lot of ways that
the pressures that
families face and that children
face are reflected in our
classrooms.
And so our students
come to school with a variety
of differences and
challenges and
teachers have a lot of
students, large caseloads
and limited
time and resources.
And so we have to...
Have teachers
have the collaborative time to
develop these relationships.
Speech therapists, special education
teachers and general education
teachers, for them to be able
to deliver these services in
the classrooms, they have to be able
to plan and collaborate and
continue to learn about
new strategies.
And so having ways that teachers
can do those things and
have the support in the classroom to
have all students learn together.
Um, takes a lot.
Denise, thank you for jo-
joining us.
Thank you so much.
Denise Clark is a special
and early childhood education
professor at UW Oshkosh.
She was with us to discuss ways
to make Wisconsin classrooms more
accessible to students with
disabilities.
And earlier we heard from speech
therapist Maddie Sawinski at
Central Elementary School in
Rhinelander about her school's
new non-verbal communication
board on the playground.
Our colleagues in the newsroom are
rolling out some new reporting next
month on road trips in Wisconsin.
And we got the scoop because Sarah
Lear is putting together an ice
cream themed road trip that includes
the story about the origins of the
flavor blue moon
That's so awesome and hope Kerwin
visited Driftless Books and Music
and is curating an independent
bookstores road trip.
And there's other trips in the works
that could involve baseball, birding
and haunted Wisconsin.
So how about your
curious road trip themes?
What theme did you do and what did
you see along the way?
Send us your itinerary and it just
may pop up in the series.
Email wisconsintoday at wpr.org
or you can call or text us at
888-6420232.
Hey, is there a dad joke-themed
Wisconsin road trip?
Rob, that doesn't even make sense!
Hey, don't make me stop this car.
Wisconsin Today producers include
Colleen Leahy, Beatrice Lawrence,
and Lauren Cox.
Our technical directors are Lee
Rayburn and Sarah Hopefull.
Tim Peterson is our managing
producer, Dean Knetter is executive
producer.
I'm Kate Archer-Kenn.
And I'm Rob Ferrett, you're
listening to WPR News.