East Central Reporter

As alarming as he finds it to be, state Rep. Chris Miller (R-Robinson) insists he really isn’t surprised to hear that a second-grade Chicago Public Schools teacher recently told students that sometimes rioting is a part of protests.

“Nothing really surprises me anymore,” Miller told the East Central Reporter. “For years now, the legislature has been pushing a radical agenda for our schools. Is it any wonder that with this continued emphasis on woke ideology that teachers would be so brazen as to tell second graders that violence at protests is OK?”

Polaris Charter Academy second-grade teacher Katy Heavener recently told her students that rioting is sometimes part of protests when she shared a video with them of the rioting that broke out following the police killing of George Floyd.

With the Culturally Responsive Teaching movement picking up steam, Miller said he knows it’s only a matter of time before lessons like these are being offered up in schools in his community.

“Part of the reason that the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules pushed through the Culturally Responsive Teaching standards was to get around the conservative school boards in rural areas and make sure teachers in those districts were buying into the woke philosophy,” he said.

Finally, Miller argues the fact that the Polaris curriculum has progressive activism built into it for its 434 students doesn’t justify all Heavener is engaging in and that there has to be a better way.

“We need to create an environment where political activism in the classroom is not acceptable,” he said. “The same woke mob that is pushing these radical ideas would be enraged if a teacher told students to vote for Donald Trump. So why is it acceptable to indoctrinate students with woke ideology?”