Letters to the Editor

We welcome letters to the Editor, a chance for members of the community to comment on issues of concern to them. All letters must be original, not duplications of letters addressed to public officials or written by others. The views and opinions expressed are those of the letter writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of this publication, its publishers, Editor, or staff.

To the Editor:
It is written: There is no greater gift, than a man gives up his life for a friend. On June 25, 2024, our family was made well aware of that when we were notified that our son, Corey, was killed while on watch at Lincoln Hills Correctional Facility, by a 16-year-old juvenile criminal inmate.
At this time we would like to thank everyone who gave us compassion and honored our son by showing their condolences, by coming to the Walk of Life Honor Guard at Aspirus Wausau Hospital, and to the fundraiser held last Thursday at Los Mezcales restaurant.
This incident could have been avoided if those in government hadn’t taken all of their protective devices away from these people in 2019.
Many employees have been beaten, spat upon, and chemicals and urine thrown on them over the years.
As a family affected by this legislation, we urge people to contact your State Representatives to rewrite policies to reinstall some protective measures. Each security guard in this facility, while on watch when multiple students are out of confinement, should have some protection. A thought that occurred to us was, if each had a trained, 85-pound guard dog at their side while watching these criminals, just the presence of these animals would deter a lot of unprovoked aggression against them.
So people, we urge you to contact our elected officials and demand they do the jobs they were elected to do.

-Corey Proulx’s Mom and Dad, Kathy and Ed Proulx
Merrill, Wis.