06/10/2021
Abstract: When addressing the Cedarburg, Wisconsin school board last year, Katie Pape, mother to 13-year-old Bella Pape, didn’t mince her words: If her immunocompromised daughter with Kabuki Syndrome got COVID, she would not survive. Thankful for the incredible support she had received from the community and Cedarburg School District since the day Bella was born, Kaite was stunned when at the onset of COVID, this support seemed to crumble. This is the story of Bella, and the support she received from her beloved Cedarburg community pre-COVID. Support that was seemingly lost during COVID. It it also Katie’s story of advocacy for her daughter in the face of an increasingly closed-off school board and indifferent district.
Thank you for reading Bella's story.
By Abby Janowiec Many school districts in Wisconsin began the 2021-2022 school year without universal masking, social distancing, contract tracing, and required quarantining—all primary components of federal, state, and local health organizations’ recommended protocols. For varied and often over...
