Elmhurst Official Blasted For Facebook Page

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst Alderman Mark Mulliner helped start a local parents' rights group last month that criticizes Elmhurst School District 205's performance.

On Tuesday, Mulliner himself took some heat for the group's Facebook page, which he created. He remains publicly silent about the criticism.

The group is called Elmhurst Parents for Integrity in Curriculum, or EPIC.

At a City Council meeting, resident Mandy Puchalski took Mulliner to task for his role in the group.

The group's website contends members were able to move a book about sexuality, including LGBTQ issues, from the children's area to the adult section of Elmhurst Public Library. (The library denies this.)

"I would like to express some sincere concern that an elected official who helps oversee a city department like the library would seek to influence how our public library would gauge the appropriateness of a children's book," Puchalski said.

The mayor appoints members of the library board, with the City Council's consent. The library, though, runs independently.

Puchalski also noted the Facebook page included a post for two weeks that featured a female politician's photo, which was adjusted so that she appeared in blackface. Puchalski didn't name the politician, but it was Hillary Clinton.

Puchalski said the group kept the photo on its page, even after a Patch reporter asked a question about it. It was taken down shortly after a school board meeting in which the group gained negative publicity, she said.

Puchalski said the group also regularly targets by name school administrators and teachers that it dislikes.

"Please tell me Elmhurst is better than this," Puchalski said. "Please tell me this City Council joins me in finding this behavior unbecoming of Elmhurst city officials and residents."

Mulliner did not respond during the meeting. Nor did he return Patch's messages.

In an email Wednesday, Tom Chavez, another leader in the group, explained the blackface photo.

"With regard to the Hillary post, the woman who posted it looked at the news headline, which was fine, but failed to notice the picture," he said. "We removed the photo."

Chavez said he wasn't sure about the library issue, referring questions to Mulliner.

As for naming teachers and administrators, Chavez said he takes issue with a particular teacher who he said tweets that Christianity is a religion of oppression.

"After all, we're Christians in my family, and I don't believe me or my children are oppressors," Chavez said. "If (the teacher) is so fearful of people knowing the ideas and beliefs that she espouses, then why make them so publicly?"

In November, Mulliner, a former director of technology at District 205, joined a protest of nearly 100 people at Emerson Elementary School in support of a fifth-grader who refused to wear a mask.

Last April, Mulliner lost in last year's mayoral race. As the senior alderman, he ran on his experience and knowledge of city matters. He did not put a focus on culture war issues.

He is seen as an expert on zoning issues, among other topics.