Kris Barrett, wife of Tom Barrett, uses MPS email to engage in political activity

Over at Media Trackkkers, Collin Roth is reporting Kris Barrett, the wife of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, used her Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) email account to engage in political activity that may not be allowed by MPS’ Acceptable Use Policies (AUP).

At issue are four emails cited by Media Trackkkers as being “a gross misuse of resources,” but as MPS teacher Jay Bullock has noted, at least three of the emails in question likely don’t violate the MPS Acceptable Use Policy, while the fourth, in which Barrett used her MPS email account to contact five fellow teachers about campaigning against former County Executive candidate and current Republican member of the State Assembly Jeff Stone, may in fact be a violation of the MPS Acceptable Use Policy.

Did Kris Barrett violate the MPS Acceptable Use Policy? Probably. Would she have faced termination for her transgression? Probably not. The fact is, Kris Barrett should have known better, and she shouldn’t have sent the emails she did, because there’s no doubt she was well aware of MPS’ Acceptable Use Policy.

It’s worth noting Kris Barrett sent the emails in question in February and March 2011, and she’s not even an employee of the Milwaukee Public School system anymore, having been laid off as a teacher in MPS around August of last year.

So why didn’t the folks at Media Trackkkers bring this issue to light back in 2011? Simple: Collin Roth from Media Trackkkers really really wants four emails sent by Kris Barrett from her MPS email account in February and March of 2011 to be a big scandal that will in some way damage Tom Barrett’s chances of defeating Scott Walker in the upcoming recall election on June 5. After all, despite their claims to be “non-partisan,” Media Trackkkers is really nothing more than a right-wing spin machine fronting as a “news” organization.

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