Bombshell Federal Lawsuit Says Teachers Abused Students for Decades in Small Wisconsin School District

Oconto Falls is a small town just north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. It has a population of around 3,000 people and if you don't live in the Dairy State, you probably haven't heard of it. Until now, that is. A lawsuit filed by three former students of the Oconto Falls School District is about to put the city and the state in the national spotlight in what may be the worst child sex abuse scandal in Wisconsin history.

The lawsuit alleges that over the course of the last 25 years, the district allowed multiple teachers and coaches to engage in the sexual abuse of more than a dozen students.

RIGHT NOW: 14 victims, 9 teacher or coach perpetrators, a school district that allowed it to happen for 25 years. A lawsuit filed today against the Oconto Falls School District outlines what may be the worst child sex abuse scandal in Wisconsin's history. https://t.co/nNRL6yPM3s
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) March 11, 2026

Here's more:

The Disparti Law Group alleges there there was a “persistent pattern of sexual abuse” allowing a climate “in which students have been groomed and sexually abused by staff” for 15 to 20 years.
The lawyers were filing the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Milwaukee.
The lawsuit names Brynn Larsen and Gayle Gander, two Oconto Falls teachers who have since been criminally charged for various sexual misconduct with students.
The lawsuit also accuses David Heisel of grooming and sexually assaulting a student. Heisel has not been formally charged with a crime.

Former teacher Gayle Gander was arrested in December and charged with 11 counts, including sexual misconduct by a school staff member and child enticement. Gander, 60, was an English teacher and director of the performing arts center. He was fired in January following his arrest, according to Fox11. Gander made an initial court on January 15, when his cash bond was set at $75,000. According to the criminal complaint, the alleged incidents took place between March 2024 and December 2025.

"We are here today to announce that we have filed ... a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of three brave young women who were students of Oconto Falls High School, who were groomed and sexually abused by teachers and coaches," said Larry Disparti. "But this case is not just about the individual abusers; it's about a school district that allowed these activities to go on even though there were multiple years of reporting and the warning signs. And yet they failed to act."

"What these women discovered in 2025 was not just an isolated incident but a deeply disturbing pattern of teacher-student sexual abuse that happened over decades. As we allege in our lawsuit, this school board — its deliberate indifference — created and protected an environment and culture where predators had access to children, and these students were left unprotected, unheard, and alone," Disparti said. "These women are coming forward now not only to seek justice for the harm that was caused to them, but also to expose the institutional failures that allowed the abuse to continue, and to demand meaningful change so no other students have to endure what they did."

MASSIVE SCANDAL UNFOLDING IN Oconto Falls Public School District in Wisconsin

Three former students just filed a lawsuit detailing how school officials overlooked the rampant s*xual abuse of children for 20 YEARS.

There are at least 14 reported victims listed, and 8 staff… pic.twitter.com/HjY4YALqGq
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 11, 2026

According to Fox11, the three plaintiffs, Amanda Watzka, Brooke LaCount, and Grace Williams, say the alleged incidents occurred from 2010 to 2018.

Here it's pertinent to note that Governor Tony Evers was the Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction for nearly a decade, from 2009 to 2019. In 2013, an Oconto Falls High School teacher was also a finalist for the National Teacher of the Year award.

The Oconto Falls School District released a statement about the lawsuit:

Oconto Falls School District staff and parents of current students were notified today that three former students filed a lawsuit against the District pertaining to allegations involving misconduct against them by two former school district employees. The allegations of misconduct by these two former school district employees were previously reported to the District, investigated by the District, and referred to law enforcement. One of the former employees has already been convicted and sentenced to prison for her actions.
Plaintiffs threatened to sue the District and made substantial monetary demands in August 2025. Since August, the District has responded to plaintiffs and their attorney to recognize the wrongs by these two former employees, but also to help them understand that the District took prompt action when it was made aware of the misconduct. The District is confident that its past actions and its response to Plaintiffs’ demands have satisfied its duty to keep its students and schools safe. By working with law enforcement, the District has addressed each of these situations.
Plaintiffs’ allegations in their complaint about other staff and other students have also been investigated by the District. The District’s staff of excellent professional educators strive every day to deliver a great educational experience for all students. This is not diminished by the inexcusable actions of these identified former employees. In every instance in which the District became aware of allegations against an individual, definitive action has been taken.
The District is not able to comment further on the details of this lawsuit as it is an ongoing matter. The District remains confident, however, that it will continue to act promptly to any allegations of misconduct.

Republican State Senator Eric Wimberger also issued a statement on the lawsuit:

All sexual abuse allegations deserve serious investigation by our justice system. Students in our community should feel safe when they walk the halls of our schools – and especially safe from predators who disguise themselves as someone their victims know and trust.
This lawsuit again highlights the need for the results of our statewide audit of how the Department of Public Instruction handles grooming and sexual misconduct allegations. I look forward to the audit report’s release in the coming weeks to provide transparency regarding Wisconsin’s education leaders’ highest responsibility: ensuring our children are safe at school.

This lawsuit comes less than six months after a bombshell report showed that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) had investigated hundreds of Wisconsin educators for sexual misconduct, and that many of them were allowed to keep their credentials. Wimberger, co-chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, approved an audit of the DPI following that report, to examine the DPI's policies for tracking teachers accused of grooming and sexual misconduct.

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