North Cook News

Settling on a slate of candidates in the upcoming Township District 211 school board elections proved to be a no-brainer for Vicki Wilson and members of her Parents for Privacy (PFP) organization.

Wilson and company have thrown their support behind the slate of Kate David, Ralph Bonatz and Jean Forest, largely based on their platform of a district-wide locker room and restroom policy the group feels honors the privacy and rights of all children, including those who make less traditional requests.

To say that Parents for Privacy has adopted that crusade as a  signature issue would be an understatement. The group came to be in 2015 after the government threatened to take over area schools over the divisive issue of male students having access to girl’s locker rooms.

“David and all the members of her slate are parents who understand schools have an obligation to protect students,” Wilson told the North Cook News with roughly just five weeks remaining before the April 4 election. “Supporting them and rallying behind them became a no-brainer. Personally, I like a lot of other things they stand for, like fiscal responsibility, but there was no way we could support anyone who wasn’t on the right side of this issue.”

More recently, Wilson and company have made recruiting more people to their cause a daily mission. The group has an email list of over 800 and still goes door-to-door to spread the word.

“At stake are our children's innocence, modesty and well-being,” Wilson said. “All kids need to be protected. Statistics show that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they turn 18. Those kids need to be considered when we blur the line. They have been separated by gender for a good reason.”

While many now ultimately expect the situation to be resolved by the Supreme Court, many local districts like 211 are making the issue a matter of constant debate and dialogue as parents and administrators search for guidance and answers in the meantime.  

“Most parents expect when they send their children to school, they will be using locker rooms where they won’t see or be seen by the opposite sex,” PFP members noted in a recent news release. “Schools have a duty to protect the privacy, dignity, and well-being of all students. Ralph Bonatz, Katherine David, and Jean Forrest are excellent candidates by any measure and D211 Parents for Privacy is very pleased to endorse them.”

Wilson noted all of the candidates the group is endorsing are non-incumbents after she charged the two members up for re-election this cycle “refused to protect the dignity and well-being of the girls, even after hearing from some of these girls who had been belittled and bullied.”

In all, she insisted five board members have recently taken that stance, while the slate of David, Bonatz and Forrest have consistently expressed support for a policy more in line with the way things have always been.