Waukesha school board member mutters expletive under their breath at public commenter

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The Waukesha School Board is facing criticism after one of their members let an expletive slip out of their mouth at a resident who came up to speak.

It happened at their meeting Wednesday, July 8, and it was all caught on camera.

“I was just like ooh… that’s uh.. I’m not surprised, but I am a little bit shocked,” said Ben Strong.

Strong tells us he was offended when a Waukesha School Board member insulted him at their meeting earlier this week.

“Thank you for your time.”

“A**hole.”

The unknown board member muttered the profanity under their breath, but it was still picked up by microphones.

“What they said was a good reflection of how they view criticism from the community,” said Strong.

Ben says he wasn’t trying to insult their intelligence; he simply thinks funds used to pay school resource officers could be better used elsewhere.

“So how about instead of divesting $2 million dollars over the next five years towards school resource officers,” said Ben when he spoke at the meeting, “You divest that money towards social workers?”

“Calling people names, even if you don’t know the microphone is on...there’s just certain things you don’t do,” said Waukesha City Alderman Aaron Perry.

Alderman Perry says he was taken aback, and says it can be intimidating for people to speak up publicly about their ideas.

He says even though the board member didn’t agree, as an elected member, they need to be open minded and available to listen.

“If anything, we want to encourage more of that in this community, not less. And the way we do that is certainly treating folks with respect.”

We reached out and spoke to the school board president, Joe Como, who apologized and said they value the community’s input.

He says the board and the superintendent are aware of the incident, and are trying to determine where it came from.