Wisconsin mother Amanda Vogel shared her reason for homeschooling her daughter by posting a TikTok video of a public school concert. In the video, Vogel’s daughter, who has been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, sits alone in her wheelchair beside the risers, separated from the rest of her classmates. The video, posted on Dec. 17, 2025, now has 1.5 million likes and thousands of comments.
“We did not plan to homeschool,” Vogel wrote in the caption. “Watching her be placed off to the side while her peers stood together, and realizing no one noticed before the concert, was it for us. If something this visible was going unnoticed, what else was being missed when we weren’t around?”
The Pittsville School District, where the incident occurred, serves a rural area in central Wisconsin and has fewer than 600 students, according to the district’s website.
While not named in the video, the district was quick to respond. even calling local law enforcement on her.
In fact, just two days after Vogel posted her video, the Chief of Police paid two visits to Vogel’s house and asked her to remove the video. The police chief reminded Vogel of her First Amendment right to free speech, but also warned her that the school district would be sending a cease-and-desist letter if she didn’t remove the video, according to Cory Brewer, Deputy Counsel with the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), which is representing Vogel pro bono.
After the second visit from law enforcement, Vogel set the video to private.
“Sending law enforcement to someone’s home, however polite, however well-intentioned, is still very intimidating, and it would chill most parents into stopping speaking,” Brewer told IW Features.
That same day, Vogel received a cease-and-desist letter from her daughter’s school district threatening a defamation lawsuit. The district’s lawyers alleged that the TikTok post was “harassing and defamatory” because it contained “the faces of several staff members.”
Vogel quickly changed her mind about speaking out and republished her post. And on Jan. 14, WILL responded on her behalf with a letter to the Pittsville School District’s lawyers.
“[Vogel] believes her daughter was excluded from a school program because her daughter is disabled,” WILL wrote in its letter. “In her opinion, that was mean and perhaps indicative of other instances of exclusion of which she was unaware.”
Brewer told IW Features that Vogel’s post merely represented her own thoughts as a concerned parent—the post did not even name the school district or any teachers. And the district’s letter did not specify what Vogel said that was defamatory or untrue, Brewer noted.
Nevertheless, the Pittsville School District doubled down in a Jan. 16 Facebook post, saying the TikTok video was from a 2023 concert and “led to misunderstandings, and threats of violence toward the District and its staff, causing the District to contact local law enforcement.”
Responding to the district, Vogel wrote her own Facebook post, clarifying she was not attacking the school or its workers. Rather, she said she wanted to share her family’s reasons for homeschooling.
“The school district did not offer a conversation after the video was posted, rather they decided to involve lawyers even after we set the video to private,” she wrote. “As parents and advocates, we felt the need to respond.”
“We do appreciate the community we live in and are thankful for all the support we’ve received over the years,” Vogel added.
While Vogel and her legal representatives await a response from the district, the responses from supportive parents and concerned citizens have poured into the comments on her original post and Facebook response.
“My momma heart hurts for you,” wrote one user.
“Proud of you guys for standing up for your beautiful family!!” wrote another.
While Vogel’s case is within a small, rural community, her story is not the only of its kind. Since 2020, Brewer noted that WILL has represented an Iowa parent threatened with a defamation suit for expressing concerns about controversial curriculum at a school board meeting, a Moms for Liberty activist sued for defamation for criticizing her school district, and a student who had law enforcement called to her home over a social media post.
“Parents need to be able to advocate for their kids. They have a right to do that, a constitutional right to do that,” said Brewer. “And just because it might be uncomfortable to the school district, that doesn’t diminish that right.”
