North Cook News

Park Ridge Niles School District 64 parents are unhappy with the new potential sex education curriculum as well as students having access to certain books and websites.

In August 2021, a new bill was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker that altered the sexual education requirements in Illinois. However, several school districts, including D64, chose to opt out due to the controversial nature of the bill's content. According to Informed Parents of D64, the bill relied on the nonprofit organization SIECUS to determine "national standards," which has caused concern among parents who fear that SIECUS may create and implement the curriculum in schools.

Informed Parents of D64 reported that parents are concerned about the sexual education curriculum in Illinois, as they fear their children may learn about it indirectly from peers, even if the parents opt out. Some of the curriculum's problematic aspects include explicit discussion of genital body parts, teaching kids aged 5-8 that all boys and girls have body parts that "feel good when touched" and teaching sexual intercourse to children as young as kindergarten. The curriculum also introduces hormone therapy and puberty blockers as options for delaying puberty, discusses masturbation, promotes abortion among children aged 8-12 and introduces sexually transmitted diseases to the youngest learners aged 5-8, according to Informed Parents of D64.

Parents in District 25 in Arlington Heights were alarmed to discover that their children had access to an app on their school-issued Chromebooks called "Search by Creative Commons," which allowed students to search for unfiltered internet content, including explicit pornography, according to Informed Parents of D64. This app was available to children as young as 5, and District 64's technology team has stated that they are not currently using this app in any school in the district, however, Informed Parents of D64 stresses the importance of monitoring what children have access to, according to Informed Parents of D64.

The Park Ridge Public Library has books in its collection that are considered mature and accessible to younger children. Some of these books include "Flamer," "Let's Talk About It," "Gender Queer" and "This Book is Gay," which are all found in the middle and high school sections of the library. Concerns have been raised about the explicit content in these books, including discussions of sex, masturbation, sexual positions and graphic images of naked teenagers engaging in sexual activity. Some of these books are also available at the Maine South library, which is where many D64 students will attend after their time at the district, according to Informed Parents of D64.

Recently, Field School's library acquired books intended for 13+ audiences, despite the school serving children aged 5-11. The books included "The Heart Stopper" graphic novel series featuring images of teens engaging in passionate make-out sessions, "Lily and Duncan" with deep topics such as a transgender child and a child with bipolar disorder and "Gracefully Grayson" marketed toward middle school and young adults. These books have since been removed from the library, according to Informed Parents of D64.