It has been almost 20 years since it has been documented that children in our schools are in grave danger of being sexually abused by teachers.  In 2004, Charol Shakeshaft completed a U.S. Department of Education sponsored study on Educator Sexual Misconduct.  The seminal findings showed that 9.6 percent of children in our schools, public and private, are victims of educator sexual misconduct sometime between kindergarten and 12^th grade.

Almost nothing has been done about this.

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS), at least, has begun to make some steps toward addressing the imminent threat to children by expanding the CPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) and greatly increasing the capability to investigate abuse allegations. They have had some success.

According to their recently released report, from late 2018 until the end of 2022 the OIG opened a little over 1,700 cases and closed almost 1, 400, leaving 300 plus cases still open. With 30 investigators on their staff, that’s not bad.

What is not so good is only 16 criminal charges wound up being filed against the accused and not all of them were convicted. It is not clear how many were convicted or what sentences they received. Moreover, we don’t even know who they were. In the CPS OIG report they are not named. Incredible.

We also don’t know how many of the accused were fired, lost their license, or merely received some kind of internal discipline. One teacher shared “images from a pornographic website while sharing his screen with students,” supposedly inadvertently. The Board gave him a “Level Three Performance Improvement Plan,” whatever that is. It’s essentially nothing. Why?

It appears that most of the accused are still working for CPS, but who knows?

Reading between the lines of the OIG report, it appears that the CPS administration and the Board have to dance delicately through the contractual minefield set up by the teachers unions to protect all teachers regardless of what they might have done. Why would there be any question about firing a teacher who shows pornography to children, whether it was on purpose or accidentally? That teacher should be gone and any union that stands behind him or her discredits itself.

Historically and even to this day, very little attention has been focused on the predators in our schools.  In 2021, Illinois State Representative Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg) introduced House Bill 1975, supposedly to address sexual abuse in the schools.  That bill requires educating teachers about educator sexual abuse and how to recognize the signs of “grooming.”  It is a common practice of child sexual predators to “groom,” or seduce, children over a long period of time.  Essentially, the predator will develop an increasingly intimate relationship with the child, introduce secrecy at some point, and eventually sexualize the relationship.

Mussman named the act “Faith’s Law,” after Faith Colson, a former Schaumburg High School Student who had been groomed and sexually exploited by one of her teachers starting in 2001. Based on Dr. Shakeshaft’s study we know that Faith was only one of an estimated 16,000 students in Illinois who were abused by an educator that year.

But what does this bill do to prevent what happened to Faith and 16,000 other Illinois children in 2001? Not much, if anything. The bill requires that teachers be trained to recognize grooming behavior, schools to set up policies to establish better boundaries between teachers and students, and to create a list of sexual abuse response and prevention resources to be made available to the public. The bill also expands grooming beyond electronic activity to include in person and third-party conduct.

This proposal proves that our legislators, including Mussman, simply do not take the protection of childhood innocence seriously, or are too uninformed themselves to fashion a solution.

How could anyone graduate with a childhood education degree and not know what grooming is?  There are mountains of published papers on grooming.  Everyone even remotely connected to issues of child protection knows that grooming behaviors should be viewed as a giant red flag.  Expanding the grooming law does little since you must prove intent to abuse to prosecute.  That’s almost impossible until after the abuse occurs.

Libraries already are filled with sexual abuse prevention resources, most of which nobody reads.  Just ask your librarian.  As for creating policies that establish appropriate boundaries between teacher and student?  If this hasn’t already been done in every school the people in charge should be prosecuted for malfeasance.

This law is little more than virtue signaling.

One reason the problem is so large is due the teachers’ unions.  They actively protect teachers who are predators.  Examples are everywhere of the unions shielding teachers who regularly engage in grooming behaviors.  The unions will not let them be fired.  Teachers have been known to assign obscene materials to children to read as part of a class assignment and nothing happens to the teacher. Even when caught sexually abusing children the unions often go to bat for them.

Another problem is the obscenity exemption for teachers in Illinois.  This allows librarians to provide, and teachers to recommend, highly sexualized and often deranged and perverted books for children to read or study.  Providing this kind of material to children is a typical grooming behavior of predators.  Such materials are used to begin to sexualize the relationship and to arouse the child.  It’s completely legal in Illinois schools.

Senate Bill 818, which was voted for by Mussman and 59 fellow Illinois House Democrats (all Republicans voted against it), makes the grooming problem even worse.  It mandates that all schools implement sex education programs – Kindergarten to 12^th Grade – which are to be based on the “National Sex Education Standards,” although there is a provision that allows each district to opt out of the standards if they want.

Such a farce.  These “standards” were developed by an ad hoc group of sexual progressives.  In addition to Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, Answer, and Advocates for Youth, a host of other left leaning sexual activists developed the document.

Those who created the standards believe that every person has a right to experience sexual pleasure from birth to death, that children have a right to experience sexual pleasure whenever and with whomever they want, that purity is a false value, and that children should be encouraged to experiment sexually with same and opposite sex relationships.  The standards teach that all sexual activity is good as long as there is mutual consent, disregarding that children cannot legally give consent.

Only a handful of school districts in Illinois opted into the standards. In Chicago they were using the perverse standards even before the law was passed.

The National Sex Education Standards do not call for a class in comprehensive sex ed. No. The standards require that sex ed be infused in every class, that it be part of every subject wherever possible.

These are not standards. This law destroys every remaining sexual standard established over the last two millennia. And it turns every teacher into an accomplice for every predator in our schools. It is institutionalized grooming on a mass scale and neutralizes any possible good, however little, Faith’s Law might have achieved.

Despicable.

Leftists here in Illinois have been heeding the opportunistic control freak Rahm Emanuel’s instruction:

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

Most Illinoisans going about their business, working hard and raising children, have heard nothing about the power grab underway right now by leftist swamp creatures in Springfield. As citizens continue to battle governmental authorities—both elected and unelected—who have used the pandemic crisis to usurp our rights, swampsters in Springfield are busy passing legislation to ensure the government will have such ill-gotten powers in perpetuity.

On Thursday, April 22nd, the Illinois House passed along party lines HB 2789, an authoritarian proposal sponsored by State Representative Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg). This bill adds an amendment to an existing law, which will grant sole authority to determine whether, when, and under what conditions public and private schools can return to in-person instruction in the event of a public health crisis to the Department of Public Health Powers and Duties.

The Department shall establish requirements by rule for providing in-person instruction at nonpublic schools and public schools that include, but are not limited to, personal protective equipment, cleaning and hygiene, social distancing, occupancy limits, symptom screening, and on-site isolation protocols and shall disseminate information about those requirements to nonpublic schools and public schools with the assistance of the Illinois State Board of Education. The authority to enforce the rules adopted pursuant to this Section lies with the Department and local departments of public health.

If upon investigation, a school is found to be in violation of the rules adopted under this Section, the Department has the authority to take the appropriate action necessary to promote the health or protect the safety of students, staff, and the public, including, but not limited to, closure of a classroom, gym, library, lunch room, or any other school space until such time that the Department determines that the violation or violations have been remedied. Nothing in this Section limits the authority or requirements of the Department or local public health departments.

Don’t be deceived into believing this bill has anything to do with public health and the welfare of children. This bill is solely about the government expanding and retaining control over the lives of citizens.

It is neither the Illinois State Board of Education nor the Illinois Department of Public Health that is lobbying for this bill. The pressure for this dangerous bill is coming from the powerful teachers’ union, the Illinois Education Association (IEA), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA).  The IEA-NEA, with its insatiable appetite for power, is “demanding” that lawmakers pass this bill.

We have seen federal and state governments issue mandates about masking and school closures for which there is no scientific support. And we have seen state lawmakers genuflect to teachers’ unions that have been making demands wholly irrelevant to COVID-19—demands that harm children.

Local elected school boards, accountable to the people who elect them, must retain control over decisions related to their communities. And neither Springfield swampsters, nor an Illinois governor, nor the Department of Public Health Powers and Duties, nor the appointed and politicized Illinois State Board of Education should have unrestricted authority to control how private schools respond to public health crises.

Why does any Illinoisan think the bureaucrats in corrupt Illinois government (who, by the way, deny school choice to Illinoisans, including disadvantaged children in lousy, dangerous Chicago schools) have the best interests of children in mind or know better how to protect them than do parents and local school districts?

Instead of granting more power to the corrupt, inefficient, feckless, and power-hungry government, let’s starve it.

This bill passed the Illinois House by a partisan vote of 70 to 42. The legislation now moves to the Illinois Senate for consideration, where it is sponsored by State Senator Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis).

DO SOMETHING!

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state senator, asking him/her to vote against HB 2789. If we have learned anything during the COVID-19 lockdown, it is that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work. We have local school boards and county health officials who are better positioned to respond to health crises.

With approximately 5 weeks left before the Illinois General Assembly adjourns for the summer, your local state senator must hear from you. Please! Let them know clearly, but politely, that we vehemently oppose giving bureaucrats at the Department of Public Health Powers in Springfield MORE authority.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Illinois-Democrats-Trying-to-Give-More-Power-to-Bureaucrats-During-All-Health-Crises.mp3

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Illinois parents shouldn’t need any more reasons to get their kids out of the sexual indoctrination hellholes that masquerade as government schools, but here are some more reasons courtesy of the cunning creatures that inhabit the Springfield swamp.

Two weeks ago, two bills were introduced to amend Illinois’ already offensive comprehensive sex ed law: SB 3788, which is sponsored by Illinois State Senators Celina Villanueva (D-Summit) and Laura Fine (D-Glenview), and HB 5012, the chief co-sponsors of whom include the Illinois House’s most objectionable propagandist, State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) along with Representatives Ann Williams (D-Chicago) and Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg).

Then on Wednesday, a bill that should be called the “GET OUT OF ILLINOIS SCHOOLS PRONTO” Act (SB 2762), was filed by nine Democrats and will mandate comprehensive sex ed  for all grades. This bill, laughably named the “Responsible Education Adolescent and Children’s Health” (REACH) Act, is heartily endorsed by Planned Parenthood of Illinois and by Illinois’ premiere “LBGT” activist organization, Equality Illinois, which should tell you everything you need to know about it.

Here are some troubling parts of the Villanueva/Cassidy monstrosities that apply to grades 6-12:

• Their bills mandate that all curricular “materials and instruction” must be “affirming” of “individuals, families, and communities” in an “inclusive, respectful, and effective” manner based on their identities as homosexuals or cross-sex impersonators.

• Their bills delete the section that says curriculum must “teach honor and respect for monogamous heterosexual marriage.”

• Their bills add “Course material and instruction shall [must] teach pupils … how to give [and] receive … consent” for sexual activity. Let’s repeat that: Our government is going to order schools to teach 11-year-olds how to give consent for sex.

• Current law requires “evidence-based” curricula. These new bills add the term “evidence-informed,” which is a far less rigorous requirement. “Evidence-informed” resources are much more useful to leftists who want to promote, for example, the “trans” ideology, because there is no hard science proving that social, chemical, and surgical interventions for gender dysphoric children are harmless.

These bills also say that all curricular “materials and instruction” must be “affirming” of “individuals, families, and communities” in an “inclusive, respectful, and effective” manner based on their “religion.” So, does anyone believe that the feelings and beliefs about sexuality, sexual identity, sexual relationships, or marriage of Christians, Orthodox Jews, or Muslims will be explicitly affirmed in exactly the same ways the feelings and beliefs of homosexuals and cross-sex impersonators on these issues will be? Does anyone believe the feelings and beliefs of the religious groups will be presented at all?

Then on Wednesday, things got worse. Nine Democrats in the Illinois Senate sponsored a bill that expands sex ed to include all grades from kindergarten through senior year in high school and includes the following:

• “It is the intent of the General Assembly that comprehensive sex ed shall [must]… promote awareness and healthy attitudes about gender identity, gender expression” and “sexual orientation … and must be available to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.”

• “Comprehensive sex ed in kindergarten through second grade shall [must] include … instruction on the following topics: human anatomy … gender roles … [and] varying family structures.” Discussing human sexual anatomy in co-ed K-2 classes is yet one more way for our culture to dissolve feelings of modesty in young children just as those feelings are beginning to develop. Leftists view that as a good thing.

• “Comprehensive sex ed in the third through 5th grades shall [must] include information about diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. … and an examination of the harm caused by gender-role stereotypes.”

• “[C]omprehensive sex ed must include … Discussion about … sexting” with 8-10-year-olds. Leftists may be unaware of the many 8-10-year-olds who have never heard of sexting, never heard of porn, and don’t have cell phones. In those many cases, the passage of this law would mean the government would be introducing these young children to sexting. The innocence of their children that, at great effort and vigilance, parents have been able to preserve in the midst of this sex-saturated and defiling culture, the government would steal.

• Comprehensive sex ed “may not use stigmatizing or shame-based instructional tools or stigmatize parenting or sexually active youth,” “may not employ gender stereotypes” (you know, like saying only girls menstruate or only boys have penises), and “may not teach or promote any religious doctrine.”

In other words, schools must express only one judgment on homosexual behavior, cross-sex identification, and same-sex parenting: approval. So, what happens when the next sexual lobby gets their sexual identity added to the lawbooks? What happens when polyamorists are successful in having “polyamory” included in law as a “sexual orientation”?

Let’s for a moment look at not just the trees but the forest too. In that dark forest lurks not only comprehensive sex ed for K-12 students but also the “LGBT” school indoctrination law, which takes effect this coming July and applies to all grades K-12. Every student starting at 5 years old will be exposed to positive images and ideas about homosexuality, cross-sex identification, and activism in the service of normalizing both. There won’t be any way to escape such indoctrination by opting out because it’s going to be integrated across curricula.

According to research conducted in 2018 by the market research firm Ipsos Mori, 88 percent of baby boomers identified as exclusively heterosexual, 85 percent of Gen X identified as such, 71 percent of millennials, and a shocking 66 percent of Generation Z, that is, young people between the ages of 16-22, identified as exclusively heterosexual. Ideas have consequences.

While conservatives claim to believe that homosexuality is not biologically determined, they act as if they believe it is. They have for decades allowed their children to be exposed to “LGBT” dogma because they don’t really believe it will affect their children. Conservative parents have for decades tolerated their children’s exposure to homosexuality-affirming plays, novels, movies, essays, “anti-bullying” programs, and sex ed in school, ignorantly believing such propaganda won’t affect their children’s hearts, minds, and behavioral choices.

But of course, it will, and we’re seeing the toxic fruit of the erasure of sexual taboos and concomitant wholesale cultural approval of deviant sexual behavior. Layer on top of that widespread and easy availability to homosexual and “trans” porn, pro-homo/pro-“trans” postings on social media, loss of faith, broken homes, and broken children in search of connection and existential meaning, and voilà, we’re a pagan culture.

While parents may opt their children out of the sex ed indoctrination, they may not exempt them from the “LGBT” indoctrination that will permeate all other curricula. Fat lot of good opting their kids out of pro-“LGBT” sex ed will do when all their peers are in it and the rest of their classes are similarly poisoned.

A question for the non-gullible in Illinois: If these laws are passed, how long do you give it before the conscience-less swampsters propose a bill amending them to get rid of the opt-out option?

A question for Christian parents: How wicked do the ideas have to become and how young the children to whom these ideas are presented in government schools before you realize government schools are training up your children to go in ways that no one should go?

A question for Christian teachers: How wicked do the ideas you’re asked to teach or implicitly speak (e.g., through the use of incorrect pronouns to refer to “trans”-identifying students) have to become before you will take up your cross and refuse?

A question for pastors, priests, and elders: How wicked do the ideas that children in your congregations are exposed to in government schools have to be before you realize these children are your mission field? How wicked do the ideas that children in your congregations are exposed to in government schools have to be before you will either create affordable schools or make funds available to your families so they can send their children to existing but cost-prohibitive schools?

Government schools are no longer places that shape character or cultivate virtue. Government schools are places dedicated to the ideological grooming of children into the deviant-sex-obsessed world of “progressivism.”

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative to ask them to vote against these bills:  SB 3788, SB 2762 and HB 5012. Impressionable students in public schools should not be exposed to body- and soul-destroying messages that promote leftist beliefs about sexuality.

Even if your children or grandchildren are not in public schools, your taxes are being used for this relentless indoctrination campaign. In addition to sending an email, please call both of your state lawmakers during normal business hours via the state switchboard: (217) 782-2000.

A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone,
after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
~Jesus Christ (Luke 6:40)

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/sexed_mixdown.mp3

THIS SATURDAY! IFI is hosting our annual Worldview Conference on March 7th at the Village Church of Barrington. This year’s conference is titled “Thinking Biblically About Our Corrosive Culture” and features Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Rob Gagnon. For more information, please click HERE for a flyer or click the button below to register for the conference.