Chicago City Wire

Former Illinois public school history teacher and education activist Frank McCormick called out the Chicago Teachers Union in a recent tweet. 

“The Chicago Teachers Union never fails to make itself look awful,” McCormick tweeted. 

McCormick posted a statement attributed to the CTU Members Only Facebook Group regarding the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing a football coach to lead his players in prayer.

”The Supreme Court just ruled that you can lead your students in prayer. I hope you are all prepared to uphold and honor that decision. Bring out your prayer rug, your pentagrams, your herbs and Tarot cards, your Quran, your Tanakh and Talmud, your Ram's horn, your Star of David, your Baphomet, your Satanic Bible, your altars, your Tibetan prayer wheel, and your Book of Shadows,” the CTU Members Only Facebook Group post reads.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Jesse Sullivan accused the CTU weeks ago of instituting political bias in classrooms. Sullivan called out the CTU after a whistleblower provided messages from another CTU forum in which teachers discussed forcing a liberal agenda on school children. 

"We are grateful to the CTU whistleblower who answered our call and brought forward these documents that show CTU members violating the prohibition on political activities for public officials, using their taxpayer-funded positions to indoctrinate our children with a radical political agenda," Sullivan said. "These activities are why I have called to defund the CTU and end political indoctrination in Illinois schools once and for all. As governor, I will end the practice of taxpayer-funded Chicago Public Schools collecting millions of dollars in dues on behalf of the Chicago Teachers Union.” 

Included in the documents were allegations of a library specialist who discussed race in the classroom when ordered to stop by the school administration, CTU executive Jackson Potter’s exploration in the classroom of how “patriarchy, materialism and white supremacy shape our notions of love,” and an eighth-grade teacher who noted she started off one session by takining her students' belongings because society at large is “acting like this country wasn't built on stolen land by people who stole everything from people of color.” 

Earlier this year the CTU, which represents 25,000 employees in Chicago Public Schools, the fourth-largest district in the country with over 340,000 students, forced children into remote learning after a planned work action. 

One teacher said he would publicize names of teacher who went against the labor action.

McCormick is a former Illinois history teacher who tore into his former employer, Waukegan Public Schools in a speech at a December school board meeting. 

“This system offers adults job security and a paycheck for little more than one's obedience, compliance and silence. A lot of it's about maintaining the illusion that we're a functioning school district. I've decided to speak out as penance for my years of silence while my students suffer,” McCormick said, Lake County Gazette reported. Several other teachers across the state have noted their displeasure with the trajectory of public schools since with resignations and early retirement.