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Illinois School ‘Diversity’ Club Sponsor Sought To Exclude Students Upset Over Trans Bathroom Policy

  A teacher at an  Illinois  high school sought to exclude students who allegedly opposed the school’s transgender bathroom policy from meet...

 A teacher at an Illinois high school sought to exclude students who allegedly opposed the school’s transgender bathroom policy from meetings of the school’s “Diversity” club.

A Waterloo High School teacher and advisor to the school’s “Diversity,” (Gay-Straight Alliance) Club complained about critics of the school’s bathroom policy and looked to place tampons in boy’s bathrooms, according to emails obtained by Parents Defending Education and shared with The Daily Wire. 

As the Daily Wire previously reported, students who were uncomfortable sharing bathrooms with students of the opposite sex were investigated by Waterloo High School after choosing to use a private bathroom that was made available by the school. 

“Usually, our meetings are open. Unfortunately, some of the main players who are in favor of keeping transgender students out of the bathrooms are students who have been coming to meetings under the guise of support for our queer kids,” the Waterloo “Diversity” club advisor wrote in an email from March 2023 to a group of GSA Illinois advisors.

“I’m meeting with our administration today, but I was hoping for some advice about how to handle the meeting tomorrow. Do any of you have experience with monitoring who can and who cannot attend meetings?” the sponsor added. 

In a response to the email, a faculty member of the Champaign School District recommended setting guidelines that would allow the club to remove students or close meetings.

“IF you want to keep the meeting closed, you should make that clear. I would say, don’t be sneaky. Just say to non-normal attenders, ‘We are continuing a project/working on an initiative/Planning for something with our current members only today. So sorry. If you are interested in other meetings, I’d be glad to give you a calendar of open meetings!’” the Champaign School District faculty member said. “Plan for a private time to follow up with your normal membership that isn’t a normal meeting. Maybe via note, phone call, e-mail, etc. or during lunch or before school. Whether the meeting goes well or poorly, those kids will want to vent about their needs to you. They will want to talk about where their minds were and what comes next.”

According to the school’s website, the club “promotes and encourages diversity and acceptance within the WHS student/faculty population. The meetings are designed to initiate, drive, and inspire social change through education and community. Diversity Club welcomes LGBTQ+ students and allies alike.”

Waterloo Community Unit School District #5 Superintendent Brian Charron told The Daily Wire that the district “only removes students from clubs when they violate school rules and expectations.” He also said that English teacher Maggie Partipilo, who previously was the sponsor of the school’s “Diversity” club and discussed getting girls access to chest binders without parental consent, is no longer the sponsor of the club.

Students at the school had been accused of harassment after a long line formed outside the private bathroom one day, which  Charron said was coordinated. 

 

Other emails between the Waterloo GSA advisors show requests on how to comply with state law requiring that tampons be placed in male restrooms, how to handle students’ “preferred pronouns,” and surveys that ask students what pronouns to use in front of their parents. 

“Political activists masquerading as school staff continue to use their official, taxpayer funded positions to push their ideology on children, train them to keep information away from their parents, and alienate students who do not buy into their agenda. It is deeply problematic that we continue to see this disturbing trend across the country. Schools must get back to their core mission of teaching children instead of using school resources to indoctrinate the next generation of American students,” Parents Defending Education Senior Advisor Michele Exner told The Daily Wire in a statement.