McHenry Times

The members of the Community Unit School District 300 heard a troubling story of student behavior from parents in their community.

“So tonight, I wanted to talk about and make the board aware of my son's experience in middle school,” Sam Sylvester, a parent, said to the board. “We've had a tough three years in middle school due to many different reasons.”

The board uploaded a live stream of its public meeting to the district’s YouTube channel.

At their regular board of education meeting on April 25th, the board held a public comment session as usual to hear any input, stories, or requests from families or members of their district. During this portion of the meeting, two parents, a mother and father of three children in the district, took three minutes each to discuss the problems they have been experiencing with classmates' actions towards their son and their frustration with the lack of action from administration.

Stand Up To Jewish Hate, a campaign to bring awareness of growing antisemitism, noted 55% of religious crimes are against the Jewish community. 

Sylvester addressed the board first, sharing the experiences they have had with their son who is in middle school. He shared that while all students have a lot of tough times in junior high, particularly in the last few years with the pandemic, the struggles of their son were multiplied since January when his class read the Boy in the Striped Pajamas as a part of their WWII and Genocide unit in class. Sylvester shared that since then, “my son has been the subject of discrimination on a daily basis, assault and threatening messages.” Such instances include classmates using racial insults and taunts like “smelly Jew” and “penny pincher” and even using Hiel Hilter motions at the student.

This comes after then-Illinois Gubernatorial Candidate Darren Bailey claimed more people died from abortions than the Holocaust.

Sylvester shared several instances of anti-Semitic bullying towards his son and also spoke about his frustrations with the administration. At the beginning of the problems, the administration issued apologies and created an Empathy Day to discuss such behaviors with their students. None of the administration's efforts were able to improve the situation and Empathy Day resulted in the student receiving letters, which were supposed to be of support and inclusion, which included further racial taunts and insults.

The board also discussed its dual language program.

Stephanie Sylvester picked up where her husband left off, sharing more stories from her son’s past few months and their frustration with the lack of intervention from teachers and administration, even having one teacher tell their son it was “not my problem.” She shared that things had gotten so bad that they filed a police report for fear for their son’s safety because of the degree of threats and violence in some of the notes students wrote to him. “If hate is happening to my son, I can guarantee it is happening to other students as well. We need to stand together and change how our students are treated. Enough is enough. With anti-Semitism having a 49% increase from last year's reported cases.” Stephanie Sylvester shared, and the board allowed her to complete her comments even after her allotted time was up.

The board discussed paying approximately $7.4 million for various fees.

Although it is board policy to not respond to public comments during the meeting, board member Joe Stevens, who was sitting in his final board meeting, felt the need to address the parents. He spoke to them directly, “I'm very sorry this has happened to you. I guarantee you, one thing I know about this district is that now that it has reached the level of the superintendent and our legal counsel, your situation will be looked into. It will get the most effort to fix it. This is nothing that we are proud of, nothing that we like. I appreciate you bringing it forward. I'm sorry it's gotten to this, but best of luck to you. I apologize on behalf of everybody.”

The board will meet again at 6 p.m. on May 23 at 2550 Harnish Drive.

Board President David Scarpino also make a response comment, directing Superintendent Susan Harkin to personally and promptly see to the situation, which she assured the parents she would immediately. “It takes courage to share in public what your son has experienced in his middle school career. On behalf of the Board of Education, I would like you and the entire community to know and understand that this district does not condone any actions of discrimination or harassment at any level of this organization.”