Conservative Elmhurst Group's Aims In Schools Debated

ELMHURST, IL – The leader of a conservative Elmhurst parents group on Tuesday accused Elmhurst School District 205 of "naked political activism."

Meanwhile, another resident told the school board that Chavez's group offered no solutions for how to improve York High School's rankings.

During public comments at a school board meeting, Tom Chavez, leader of Elmhurst Parents for Integrity in Curriculum, or EPIC, said he has been bringing to light what he considered the district's political activism and "heavily biased curriculum."

"While we all agree students should have the latitude to express themselves and their First Amendment rights should be respected, there are thresholds of decency that should not be breached in certain settings such as a high school classroom," he said.

Chavez, who is considering running for the school board next year, brought up the noose that had been on display in a York classroom. It was taken down recently after he complained.

He also said he was told Tuesday about a sign in a local middle school classroom that read, "A man was lynched by police yesterday."

Such statements, he said, contradict messages from Superintendent Keisha Campbell about programs to create welcoming environments for all students. He questioned whether such efforts really apply to everyone.

"We have students in District 205 who have parents who are police officers, FBI agents," he said. "I don't think they are all out there lynching people."

He said everyone wants students to be emotionally strong, a reference to the district's emphasis on social-emotional learning.

But he said the question was whether the district would welcome people of different opinions, whether right or left.

"I think the board of education needs to be more responsive to the community," he said.

Resident Guidi Nardini, who frequently speaks at school board meetings, said Chavez's group was providing no solutions for the district. He said the district needed to raise York High's ranking.

"But know that if you're lining up behind EPIC to try to fix that, they're going to get around to helping with your cause as soon as they have identified all the books in the library that have two dads," he said.

The best way to improve York's ranking, he said, was to get better diversity training.

"That's our weakest score," he said. "It's a B where the rest of our composite scores are A's or A minuses. To be clear, better diversity training would boost our scores and best our (Chicago Public Schools) rivals."

He said he did not know how to improve York's ranking. But he said he knew which way would fail.

"Bringing crazy Newsmax culture wars into our schools doesn't help anyone," Nardini said.

He also took aim at some conservatives who accuse their political rivals of grooming children sexually.

The district, Nardini said, has no curriculum that "sexually grooms your second-grader."

"That's just stupid. Those are just culture war fairy tales," he said. "Reading about gay people won't make your kids gay any more than reading 'Romeo and Juliet' will make your kids straight."

A number of other speakers praised the district's social-emotional learning initiatives.

Under its policy, the school board does not respond to public comments.