Chicago City Wire

Chicagoan Chris Robling is suggesting a larger problem with hiring in schools after a Homer Community Consolidated School District 33C elementary art school teacher was outed for making several disturbing social media posts. Elementary school art teacher Kris Martin works for Homer 33c serving Homer Glen, Illinois and Lockport.

“A culture of total disrespect for the parents children and community led to the hiring of this individual,” Robling, a political strategist and former reporter, told Chicago City Wire. “The fact that this happen indicates that there are likely many, many more horrible transgressions by the board administration and staff against parents and taxpayers of the district. I hope this becomes a focal point for a reform movement that brings common sense back to the leadership of this school district obviously, the individual needs to be separated from the district.”

The teacher’s 2018 and 2020 posts, including profanity-laden comments targeting police officers, have ignited outrage and prompted calls for action, particularly from parents with students enrolled in the district.

“@Homer33c hired this individual as an elementary school teacher. He claims to suffer from ‘mania and psychosis’ which can lead him to be ’violent and hurtful,’” Libs of TikTok said in an Aug. 17 post on X, formerly Twitter.

The account linked to Martin’s social media. 

“I HAVE BI POLAR 1 DISORDER WITH MANIA AND PSYCHOSIS!” the post in Martin’s name reads. “This condition has drastically changed my life for better and worse. Because of it I suffer from irrational thought processes which make my fears and anxieties triple. Every day is a battle with my mind to survive and be the best me I can be. I have done things in conditions of psychosis and mania that have been violent and hurtful. But I am NOT my disease. I am ME! And I know ME. And I LOVE ME!”

Another photo posted by LibsofTikTok and attributed to Martin showed a graphic violent still image from a horror movie depicting blood and death.

The American Federation of Teachers, which represents Martin, along with the Chicago Teacher’s Union, was responsible for the election of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The unions banded together to raise millions for Johnson, a former union organizer and teacher, who himself was paid as a lobbyist for the CTU while a member of the Cook County Board, according to Illinois Policy.

The incident calls to mind bad behavior on behalf of those belonging to the Chicago Teacher’s Union. The CTU represents 25,000 employees in Chicago Public Schools, the fourth largest district in the country with more than 340,000. Earlier this year CPS was caught covering up sexual crimes inflicted on students by teachers at Chicago schools, according to Chalkbeat Chicago. 

“Seven other staffers failed to report and actively hid suspected violations including the principal, the assistant principal, head of security, a counselor and a teacher’s assistant. They were alleged to have known about the abuses but failed to report, according to the OIG,” Becky Vevea, bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago, wrote.