North Cook News

A parent strongly voiced her concern about the curriculum implemented at the Barrington 220 School District during the Barrington 220 Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday. 

A mother of a fourth grader and a sixth grader, in her less than three-minute speech, was clear on her objection to grooming young children by allowing them to access graphic materials as part of their reading materials. 

“A parent in @barrington220 revealed at a meeting this week that her child’s sixth-grade teacher assigned the pornographic book 'Gender Queer' as summer reading for 11-year-olds,” Libs of TikTok said on Twitter.

The woman brought a copy of a pornographic image from the book and showed it to everyone at the meeting and called out the board to pay attention to the images.

“Sixth-grade reading teacher sends out a summer reading material, including 'Gender Queer,' right?” an irate mother said at a Barrington 220 school board meeting. “Hopefully everybody can see this. 11, 12 years old. Hopefully, you like this. Yeah? You guys over there because you guys make the decisions over there. OK, 11-year-old. Alright?! Now, from this book — brother talking to sister. 'So you never tasted yourself?' Sister shows brother vagina slime. There’s words, ‘blowjob' and ‘gayship.’ This is exactly what I would expect a pedophile to behave when approaching a child. To normalize sexual behavior, to abuse them. And this is how I see you. Stop sexualizing our kids. Stop abusing them.” 

Harlem High School recently removed "Gender Queer" from the school’s collection, according to the Rockford Sun. The book, which contains illustrations of explicit sex scenes, has received a lot of media attention. Author Maia Kobabe's pictures have drawn criticism from parents around the nation for being overtly sexual and unsuitable for kids.

"It’s porn," Lynette Hofman said, according to WIFR, Rockford Sun reported. "We're talking incest, molestation and pedophilia."  

Meanwhile, Downers Grove 99 voted to keep the book in its libraries. GOP activist Laura Hois said, according to DuPage Policy Journal, that “District 99 board voted unanimously to keep 'Gender Queer' in its libraries at DGN and DGS in the face of a challenge from concerned parents opposed to pornographic materials.” 

State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), the leading GOP candidate for governor, said recently that more schools need to take ownership of the situation by disallowing such books in the classroom. 

“The people pushing pornographic books in our schools are doing it deliberately,” Bailey said, Rockford Sun reported. “We need more school leaders and school boards like the one in Machesney Park to take a stand for children. Its time school officials did their jobs rather than shrugging their shoulders and acting surprised when alerted to the contents of these books, which even include illustrations of children in sex acts. Those parents who want to seek out pornographic material for their children to read are welcome to order it online or go to a library, but inappropriate material has no place in our classrooms. As governor, I will do everything within my power to ban these pornographic books from being assigned to our children by activist teachers.”

The concerned parent at the meeting also alleged that B220 violated 20 U.S. Code § 1232h - Protection of pupil rights when she was not provided a copy of the curriculum she requested in February and has found out that she will not receive any since the curriculum was not approved until the school year was about to end.

Over 8,100 students go to Barrington 220 schools in kindergarten through 12th grades, according to the district.

The school district’s superintendent, Dr. Robert Hunt, who was also present at the meeting, said there's a long list of review processes to consider on the issue.