Will County Gazette

Homer Township Supervisor Steve Balich, who also serves as a Will County Board member, is decrying recent reports of schools suggesting highly sexual books for summer reading lists.

The book, "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe, has received attention from parents given its graphic depiction of sex scenes. It was recently included on a summer reading list meant for sixth graders in the Barrington 220 School District. Parents throughout the country have criticized the book’s inclusion in schools for being overly sexual and inappropriate for children. 

“Our schools have been taken over by progressive woke Marxist doctrine,” Balich told Will County Gazette. “We need to stop this illogical assault on the mind and soul of all children. The reading and math level for most students is poor at best. Social issues and ideology seem to be more important, and seem to be extreme and against family values, morals and norms. The idea that there is no gender at birth is just stupid as is a person being able to identify as a man one day and a woman the next. Is the goal of the morons in charge the destruction of society as we know it?”

Balich made his remarks a few days after worried parent Nelda Munoz criticized school board members for recommending the book to pupils by including "Gender Queer" on a list of summer reading materials, North Cook News reported.

“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 the meeting.

According to Rockford Sun, the Harlem High School library had "Gender Queer" removed. 

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

Due to its graphic depiction of sex scenes, the book has received a lot of media attention. Kobabe's photographs have drawn criticism from parents around the nation for being too sexual and unsuitable for kids.

After an ad hoc committee, formed by Downer's Grove District 99, evaluated the book, “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,” GOP activist Laura Hois said, Dupage Policy Journal reported.

Leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), called on more schools to take responsibility for the appalling situation by banning such materials from 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. 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.”