Mudslinging Local School Board Candidates by Democratic Party

It seems that every year there is an election to vote for those who will be the voice of the people. However, recently, the voice of the people has been divided since the 2020 Presidential Election. With just over little more than a week to go until the local and school board elections, what was supposed to be “non-partisan” turned into a battle between Republicans and Democrats.

School board elections have been under fire since the release of the COVID-19 virus with the schools shutting down, children forced to mask, and school districts conforming to mandate after mandate. Parents from all over the state attended their school district board meetings reminding the members of the board of their duties and responsibilities as a voice for their community. But instead of parents and stakeholders being heard, they were called “terrorists” by government legislators for wanting to protect their children.

But it didn’t stop there. With the passing of the Illinois bill, SB818 Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act, provides the National Sex Education Standards to children K-12. This bill follows the national standards by educating K-5 on personal health and safety and inclusive sexual health education for grades 6 - 12. This bill provides age appropriate information on growth and development, personal safety, anatomy and physiology, healthy relationships, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, among other “age appropriate” lessons.

However, there was an option for parents to opt out if they so choose without any recourse from the district. One by one school districts started to opt out from including it in the curriculum. Soon after, a majority of the school districts in Illinois opted out of teaching comprehensive sexual health education, which includes instruction on controversial sexual topics. As a result, parents’ voices started to be heard that they didn’t want their children to be a part of these standards.

Despite many districts opting out, parents and stakeholders were still not comfortable with how school board members were handling certain situations within the district. Month after month parents, guardians, teachers, and stakeholders attended their local school boards hoping to make a difference. Instead of being listened to, they were considered the “enemies.” Since the beginning of the pandemic, approximately 69,000 children were taken out of Illinois public schools by either the families moving out of the state, being homeschooled, or enrolled into private schools.

According to the 2022 Illinois Report Card, Illinois schools are below a 50% proficient rate in ELA and Math. Additionally, recent discussions of Critical Race Theory (CRT), school funding and the use of ESSER funds, parental choice, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) have been debated between board members and parents.

Unlike the presidential or gubernatorial elections, there is little to no mudslinging going on between candidates during the local school board race. But two weeks before the April 4 election, the Democratic Party created a website to bash "Republican" candidates who were supported by organizations wanting to repair education in the state of Illinois.

These favorable candidates are called "extremist conservatives" by the Democratic Party. According to their site, "Extremist conservatives are running for local school and library boards. Many of them support harmful measures including banning books, blocking full spectrum sex education, teaching revisionist history and ignoring public health."

Those who have been designated as “'extremist conservatives'' are the ones who spoke out against the mask mandate, disagree with certain books in local schools and libraries that go against cultural or religious beliefs, such as teaching consent to elementary children and knowing one’s own gender identity. In one district alone, there are over 100 titles of books that go against parental belief, values, culture, and religion.

In addition, these "enemies" [parents/guardians] do not believe in teaching elementary school students comprehensive sex ed, and, apparently, want history to be taught the way it happened instead of the propagandist view of rewriting it.

The site allows a person to 'find your district' where you can find the extremists who are running in the area. A green checkmark will appear next to the candidate's name who shares the values of the Democratic Party by wanting to go against and a red exclamation point appears when a candidate is pursuing a political agenda, meaning these candidates want what's best for the children. At the bottom of the site, there is a disclaimer that the site is paid for by the Democratic Party of Illinois.

While those who run this site believe they are hurting good candidates for running, it is actually doing the opposite. What they are doing is promoting the candidates who disagree with the propaganda and constant mandates that have been plaguing the state for the last three years.

Many of the candidates are embracing it by posting screenshots of their names to social media and thanking them for doing the work by showing which candidates want education to succeed and protect the children and those who are against it.

But let's not stop at the site as there are those who want to wreak havoc wherever they go just to destroy good candidates. Morris was not an exception as there were a few who rose to the occasion by attempting to make their point heard. At a recent meet and greet, the few that came to attempt to damage the reputation of the six candidates failed as they were turned away by the residents of the community.

Each candidate gave up to a five-minute speech about who they are, why they are running, and what they hope to achieve if elected. Majority of the candidates that were in attendance were”non-political” meaning it was about support for education not one’s political stance. The community attendees that were there focused on hearing the issues instead of if they were left or right.

But it wasn't the candidates who were attacking each other; instead, it was guests in the audience who started to attack one candidate after another. The disrespect that they had towards the candidates was beyond appalling. Instead of asking a question for the candidate to answer, one woman, in particular, who was not currently from the area, began to personally attack them. It was obvious that she had an issue with one or more of the candidates. Others who were there started to become irritated with this woman as she attempted to take over the event as an interrogation.

It's obvious that the Democratic Party is scared of a nonpartisan election if they have to lean towards creating false allegations and sending in members, who are not currently from the community, to personally attack candidates. While the Democratic Party is being vocal of who they don’t want as school board members, they try to continue their reign in lowering educational standards, indoctrinating children, who are not their own, and educating them to go against family and parental beliefs. While all this is going on, many wonder where the GOP is to help these candidates. But all they hear are crickets.