North Cook News

State Rep. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) is supporting parents who oppose Barrington 220 school district’s inclusion of a highly sexual graphic novel on a summer reading list meant for sixth graders. 

The book, Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, has received unwanted attention from parents given its graphic depiction of sex scenes. Parents throughout the country have criticized its inclusion in schools for being overly sexual and inappropriate for children. 

“Of course this is disturbing, and I agree with the parents who are rightly angry,” Morrison told North Cook News. “Activist teachers, administrators, and school board members who are so-called “sex positive” have been intentionally pushing increasingly graphic material to younger and younger age groups for at least 20 years. It seems that more parents are finally waking up.”    

If this issue will not be prevented, Morrison claims it "will have long-term, harmful effects for our country and society." Parents would have to "Find out if there are school assemblies and special speakers brought in," and excuse their children for the day. Parents are also encouraged to make their opinions known to the teachers and the school’s administrators and school board members and to "Band with other like-minded parents and don’t give up.” 

“If the school board members don’t intervene, then parents are going to have to replace those board members at next Spring’s election," he said. "In the meantime, I would urge parents to get more involved. Do the work of these other parents. If you cannot provide alternative schooling for your own children, at least find out what books and classroom assignments are being suggested or handed out and opt-out or demand alternative assignments.” 

The move to push books including graphic sexual scenes comes amid declining performance scores and standards in public schools. According to Wirepoints research, in some Illinois school districts, black children's educational attainment is just over 0%. 

“Without real school choice, whereby the dollars follow the children to the classroom or education provider that best suits the students' or families' specific needs, the current public school model has a near-monopoly on dollars spent toward education. This report and other data show that despite record tax dollars we’re pouring in, it continues to be a failure in many if not most parts of the state,” Morrison previously said.  

Morrison's remarks came days after anxious parent Nelda Munoz chastised school board members for putting Gender Queeer on a list of summer reading options and recommended the book to students. “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,” Munoz said at a recent school board meeting.

State senator Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), the top Republican candidate for governor, recently said that more schools need to take responsibility for the situation by prohibiting such materials from being used in the classroom. 

“The people pushing pornographic books in our schools are doing it deliberately,” Bailey said, according to Rockford Sun. “We need more school leaders and school boards like the one in Machesney Park to take a stand for children. It's 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.”