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In possible ethics breach, McHenry County Dems conspired with teachers to recruit students for anti-gun rally


steveTA84

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This is what happens when people get together to fight for our rights. Well done, everyone.

 

 

https://mchenrytimes.com/stories/512291496-in-possible-ethics-breach-mchenry-county-dems-conspired-with-teachers-to-recruit-students-for-anti-gun-rally

 

McHenry County Democratic officials, who organized last years March For Our Lives anti-gun rally in Woodstock, conspired with high school teachers to recruit students for the rally, emails obtained by the McHenry Times show.

 

In so doing, they may have violated the state ethics act, which places restrictions on political activity by school district employees. The rally, held March 24 on Woodstock Square, moreover, turned out to be little more than a fund-raising scheme for the party, records show.

 

In one instance, Cathy Johnson and Ruth Scifo, both members of the executive board of the county Democratic party, sent an email to Woodstock High School English teacher Heather Brown on March 12 of last year explaining that they were organizing the march and rally in Woodstock. They attached a March For Our Lives flyer, and asked that it be distributed to the students and staff. They further said they had feelers out to several other area high schools.

 

In another instance, Kelli Wegener, a Democratic member of the McHenry County Board, sent an email dated March 3 to Huntley Community School District 158 officials, saying that they did not want to involve the districts in what she characterized as a grass roots movement, but we are looking to involve students in the planning. We would like to see a large teacher presence there also.

 

The email message does not identify Huntley as the recipient; it appeared in response to a FOIA request of emails to the district.

 

The McHenry Democrats advertised the March 24 event on their website, which included a link to donate not to March For Our Lives but to the party.

 

March For Our Lives was established after the February 2018 murder of 17 at a Parkland, Florida high school. The group is registered to lobby in Illinois. In 2003, the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act was amended to cover school district employees with many of the same restrictions state employees face, according to Illinois State Board of Education spokesperson Jackie Matthews.

 

Public Acts 93-615 and 93-617 enacted in 2003 made comprehensive changes to the Act and required all units of local government and school districts to adopt ordinances or resolutions regulating political activities and the making and accepting of gifts in a manner no less restrictive than the provision of the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, Mathews wrote in an email. School districts therefore have adopted policies addressing this requirement.

 

When questioned about ethics policies adopted by Woodstock High School's district, Community Unit District 200, Kevin Lyons, a spokesman for the district, hung up on a reporter.

 

For her part, Heather Brown wrote to the McHenry Times in an email: We were involved in the National School Walkout that took place on March 14th last year [ a separate event from the rally]. I don't recall receiving any information from Democratic officials.

 

She did not respond when reminded of the contents of the email she received from Johnson and Scofi. A request for a comment sent to the McHenry Democratic Party went unanswered, as did a request sent to Kelli Wegener.

 

One Second Amendment supporter, who asked not to be identified for fear of harassment commented: Can you imagine if the GOP asked teachers to distribute brochures that support the NRA [National Rifle Association]. The Dems and the media would be all over us.

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So, it made one small media outlet.

 

Watch it get buried or ignored by the other media outlets.

 

Will someone actually see a courtroom due to this? I doubt it.

 

And where did the Pfleger story start out and where did it end up? Social media is a powerful weapon......

 

There is now a link to the article to drop everywhere. Give it time

 

 

Example. This is just one tweet with the story linked. Many others sent out linked tweets as well.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ufIrPD6.jpg

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So, it made one small media outlet.

 

Watch it get buried or ignored by the other media outlets.

 

Will someone actually see a courtroom due to this? I doubt it.

And where did the Pfleger story start out and where did it end up? Social media is a powerful weapon......

There is now a link to the article to drop everywhere. Give it time

Example. This is just one tweet with the story linked. Many others sent out linked tweets as well. http://i.imgur.com/ufIrPD6.jpg

I passed it on. Well done to those who out it together. Every story has to start somewhere.

 

To anyone who is looking for a knockout punch, think of it more of a snowball effect. Let's look for more ways to add to this narrative.

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I passed it on. Well done to those who out it together. Every story has to start somewhere.

To anyone who is looking for a knockout punch, think of it more of a snowball effect. Let's look for more ways to add to this narrative.

 

^^^^THIS

Don’t look at it from the perspective of we need an A-bomb of a story. What we need is a story like this EVERY DAY. Each and every dang day we need to shine a light on all the corrupt, hypocritical, ridiculousness of the anti’s. Just keep piling it on one teaspoon at a time. Remember, the Titanic began life as one....single....rivet.

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ILgunguy said:

“To anyone who is looking for a knockout punch, think of it more of a snowball effect. Let's look for more ways to add to this narrative.”

Exactly my sentiments. I would assume It takes a lot of FOIA requests and a lot of sorting of garbage to come up with these results. Then it needs to get into the right hands. It seems that there are a lot of moving parts in this, not unlike a symphony.

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So, it made one small media outlet.

 

Watch it get buried or ignored by the other media outlets.

 

Will someone actually see a courtroom due to this? I doubt it.

And where did the Pfleger story start out and where did it end up? Social media is a powerful weapon......

There is now a link to the article to drop everywhere. Give it time

Example. This is just one tweet with the story linked. Many others sent out linked tweets as well. http://i.imgur.com/ufIrPD6.jpg

I passed it on. Well done to those who out it together. Every story has to start somewhere.

To anyone who is looking for a knockout punch, think of it more of a snowball effect. Let's look for more ways to add to this narrative.

 

Finally (the bigger picture)! This isnt an A-Bomb, (correct, Dcompton), but its a start. Everyone, get involved! Party doesnt matter! This is for the 2nd amendment and our rights in the state

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ILgunguy said:

“To anyone who is looking for a knockout punch, think of it more of a snowball effect. Let's look for more ways to add to this narrative.”

Exactly my sentiments. I would assume It takes a lot of FOIA requests and a lot of sorting of garbage to come up with these results. Then it needs to get into the right hands. It seems that there are a lot of moving parts in this, not unlike a symphony.

 

 

You don’t say....... :)

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So where else should we be emailing this link? School districts throughout Illinois? If we want to keep the pressure on, besides twitter and FB, where else?

 

As a McHenry County resident I will be sending this to the Northwest Herald (they bill themselves as "The only daily newspaper published in McHenry County") and the Woodstock Independent urging them to cover this story. Probably won't, but worth a shot.

 

Since a member of the McHenry County Board is mentioned I will contact my County representatives to express my concern about any ethics violations.

 

Others that will be contacted: McHenry County Regional Superintendent of Schools Leslie Schermerhorn, Woodstock District 200 School Board members.

 

 

 

In case anyone wants contact info:

 

Northwest Herald: tips@nwherald.com

 

Woodstock Independent: news@thewoodstockindependent.com

 

Leslie Schermerhorn - Regional Superintendent - laschermerhorn@mchenrycountyil.gov

 

Woodstock District 200 School Board:

 

• Carl Gilmore

cgilmore@wcusd200.org

 

• Jacob Homuth

jhomuth@wcusd200.org

• John D. Parisi

jparisi@wcusd200.org

• Dr. Bruce Farris

bfarris@wcusd200.org

• Russ Goerlitz

rgoerlitz@wcusd200.org

 

• Jerry Miceli:

jmiceli@wcusd200.org

• Dr. David Shinherr

dshinherr@wcusd200.org

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