Parents Threaten, Swear At Teacher, Officials: District 300 Board

ALGONQUIN, IL — A small group of parents have been threatening and insulting District 300 teachers and school board members, swearing at them and giving them the middle finger in "plain view of students," school officials said during a recent school board meeting.

The threats, some of which were read during a school board meeting last week, center around the school district's COVID-19 mitigation plan, vaccines and masks, according to Shaw Media.

Shaw Media is reporting the parents have also been sending disrespectful and threatening emails, and calling and leaving voice messages, school board president David Scarpino said during the recent meeting. He said District 300 employees no longer have to address the threats or emails and that if a phone call becomes "disrespectful" they can end the conversation, according to the article.

Across the suburbs, school board members and teachers have been on the receiving end of harassment and threats from parents angered over school districts' policies regarding the coronavirus.

In August, the District 70 school board in Libertyville decided to stop allowing email comments to be read at school board meetings. District 70 now only allows voicemail and in-person comments after schools officials said many parents angered by policies put in place used email instead to "shelter" themselves "behind a computer screen," making "horrendous comments" that created division, school board members acknowledged during a meeting in August.

• District 70 Nixes Email Comments For School Board Meetings
  

Also in August, police officers were called to a Community Consolidated School District 26 meeting in Cary after a group refused to wear masks. The group assembled at the meeting and were reminded several times of the state's mask mandate, but still would not put on a mask, according to a statement from the District 26 Board of Education.

• Police Called After Group Refuses To Wear Masks At D26 Meeting
  

Last weekend, a demonstration was held at Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47's administrative office against vaccine and testing mandates in schools and involved dozens of pairs of shoes left at the front entrance to the building.

Most of the shoes left had notes underneath them explaining why they were against the mandates.
Participants of the event included teachers, staff, parents and community members from the Crystal Lake area.

• District 47 Parents Protest Vaccine, Testing Mandates For Staff In Schools

In late August, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a school mask mandate for the state, requiring masks again be worn indoors. The mask mandate was in place for schools, including teachers and students, prior to the start of the school year. The late August mandate also required all teachers in kindergarten through college to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.