Chicago City Wire

Republican Committeeman Ammie Kessem wants parents to know how they can still take a stand against the Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act that seeks to alter sex education in Illinois schools.

Set to take effect immediately, opponents of Senate Bill 818 claim that gender, gender identity, sexuality and sexual acts would be taught to students too early, the State Journal Register reported. 

“For those who want to learn more about this new sex education bill that 70% of Illinoisans are opposed to, the 18th award Committeeman, Devin Jones, is hosting an informative meeting on its content, how to opt out and other alternatives to your children’s education,” Kessem posted on Facebook. 

The bill, on Gov. J.B. Pritzker's desk, seeks to repeal current sex education and family life instruction on disease prevention guidelines, and instead require school districts “to provide comprehensive personal health and safety education in kindergarten through the 5th grade and comprehensive sexual health education in the 6th through 12th grades in all public schools.”

Parents may opt their children out, according to the State Journal Register.

Illinois Family Institute representatives recently held a Jericho prayer march outside Pritzker's home to protest SB 818.

“We are heading over to the governor’s mansion where we are going to hold a Jericho prayer march,” a man identified as David said in a video posted to Facebook prior to the march. “We’re going to go around once, maybe twice with signs; we're going to pray and we’re going to bring some attention to the fact the governor has Senate Bill 818 on his desk, this radical, comprehensive sex ed bill, and he needs to veto it.”

According to jerichomarch.org, "Jericho March is a peaceful prayer march where people of Judeo-Christian faith pray together, sing songs and blow shofars."

In a fiery Senate floor speech, state Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) also recently came out in strong opposition of the bill. Bailey is now seeking the GOP nomination for governor to take on Pritzker in 2022.

“I sat here and I listened to this and participate in what I expect to be a prestigious body,” he said in a video posted to YouTube. “And here we are dealing with the absolute nonsense of putting perversion into our schools. That’s what this is. Teachers who are learning to teach our kids proper education have no reason to teach this stuff.”

Set to take effect immediately, the measure would also require school districts “to provide age and developmentally appropriate consent education in the 3rd through 12th grades,” while establishing what the instruction and materials must include.

“Parents across the state of Illinois don’t want this garbage,” said Bailey, who is also a critic of the way some students haven’t been allowed to engage in in-person learning for roughly a year now.

"[Gov. J.B. Pritzker] is destroying education and our children's mental health," Bailey said in a March 16 tweet. "We should have had fully opened schools a long time ago, but JB is too afraid to stand up and do what's right."