York Teacher Should Not Be Singled Out: Residents

ELMHURST, IL — Two Elmhurst residents told the school board Tuesday that it was unacceptable that a social studies teacher was singled out for criticism of her lessons.

One of the residents, Jeff Plaisted, called for the teacher's critics and a Patch reporter to issue the teacher a public apology. Neither resident named the teacher, but they were apparently referring to social studies teacher Lindsey DiTomasso. She has been identified at meetings as pushing critical race theory and Marxism.

Plaisted said DiTomasso has "basically been doxxed."

"That's just unacceptable and inappropriate," Plaisted said. "You should follow the channels and processes available. That should have been the case, and we have someone who is living in fear right now as well as her entire family."

When a woman in the audience challenged Plaisted's contentions, he shot back, "If you want to pick me apart, we can go have a drink."

He said he had a son who graduated from York High School who now attends Notre Dame University, which he labeled a conservative school. He said his son is known at the university as prepared to debate issues in a rational tone with fact-based arguments. His son, he said, largely attributes that ability to a course taught at York, apparently by DiTomasso.

"I loved that he had an AP Government teacher who challenged him from a very conservative perspective," Plaisted said. "The same thing happened with this (York) course, but from a different perspective... This course is helping our students become leaders."

Plaisted said the community owes the teacher an apology. He called on the people who brought up DiTomasso in public and Patch reporter David Giuliani, who covered the issue, to publicly apologize to her.

Elmhurst resident Guido Nardini said the teacher, apparently DiTomasso, was "called to the carpet in a fundamentally inappropriate way." He said while parents can decide to home-school their children or enroll them in a private school, they are not free to name some teacher, rather than a higher-up, and expect in their "hubris" to cause change.

Nardini urged the board to take a stand on the issue involving the teacher. He said the teacher should either be told she has the board's full endorsement because she is teaching state-approved lessons or that the board believes the parent who called her out is correct and that she is teaching inappropriate content.

"One of these strikes me as an endorsement the board needs to make," Nardini said. "Sorry for you being in the middle of this."

A couple of months ago, resident Tom Chavez, who is considering running for the school board in 2023, brought up DiTomasso's name at a board meeting. He said she was only teaching one side, which he called indoctrination.

He also spoke at Tuesday's meeting about why he thought critical race theory was being taught at York. He did not mention DiTomasso's name.

In an email, he disputed the allegation from Plaisted.

"Doxing would be giving her phone number and the address where she lives," Chavez said. "I did nothing of the sort."

The school district denies that it teaches critical race theory.

DiTomasso has not returned messages for comment.