Lake County Gazette

Antioch Township Republican committeeman Mike “Mickey” Scornavacco is raising concerns following whistleblower allegations in CUSD 300 that elementary school children were allowed to socially transition their genders without parental consent.

“That’s not education,” Scornavacco told Lake County Gazette. “That’s ideological grooming. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect in some authoritarian regime—not in suburban Illinois.” 

Superintendent Dr. Martina Smith and the CUSD 300 school board have remained silent on the claims originally reported by the Kane County Reporter.

Former district employee Laurie Parman, who spent 26 years with CUSD 300 and is now running for House District 66, backed-up the whistleblower’s claims, describing a “culture of secrecy” at the district. She recalled a pre-pandemic staff meeting in which educators were instructed to conceal students’ LGBTQ-related activities from parents, using euphemisms like “Swans Club” to hide club attendance. 

“It was to prove the point that we definitely needed to be dishonest with parents because parents could not be trusted,” Parman said in a previous interview. 

Scornavacco rejected the idea that such policies are about student safety. 

“Nonsense. The only thing these policies protect is the district’s control,” he said. “They talk about ‘safety’ while bypassing parents, hiding major decisions, and gaslighting anyone who objects. These bureaucrats don’t care about the kids—they care about pushing an ideology. They want to be the gatekeepers of truth, identity, and morality. And if parents get in the way? Too bad. That’s not safety. That’s state-sponsored secrecy.”

CUSD 300’s Student Gender Support Plan, based on an advocacy template from Gender Spectrum, lets students decide how much of their gender identity is shared and explicitly allows withholding information from parents. 

At CUSD 300, one of the cases where parents were in fact notified involved a student identifying as a “furry” who is reportedly permitted to lick themselves in class as a "calming behavior"—while no permission was sought for the gender transitions, according to the whistleblower. 

“It’s disgusting,” Scornavacco said. “If this is happening—and all signs point to it being true—then the woke bureaucrats running that district have officially lost their damn minds.” 

Per the Gender Support Plans staff are instructed to use preferred names and pronouns and grant access to facilities and activities according to gender identity.

“These are government employees, paid with your tax dollars, secretly helping elementary schoolers live double lives,” Scornavacco said. “They’re not calling parents. They’re not asking questions. They’re not offering mental health referrals. They’re just flipping a switch and pretending they know better than the child’s own family.” 

Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison insists the practice extends beyond a single district. Morrison told South Cook News that multiple districts, including Chicago Public Schools and suburban systems, have adopted gender support plans that allow students to socially transition without parents being informed, noting “this is not isolated, it’s part of a larger ideological agenda.” 

The debate extends to the Illinois legislature. In 2024, State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D–Downers Grove) introduced a bill, which ultimately failed, to redefine child abuse in a way that critics including Awake Illinois warned could strip parents of custody for refusing to use a child’s preferred pronouns or consent to gender-related medical treatments.

“I called this out in Litterbox Nation months ago, and now it’s playing out right here in Kane County,” he said. “It’s not a conspiracy theory—it’s policy.”

Scornavacco’s April 2025 book Litterbox Nation, a 72-page “call to arms” against what he sees as a culture of delusion, argues that America has replaced facts with feelings and discipline with dysfunction, fueling identity crises in schools and beyond. 

Scornavacco urged parents to take a stand. 

“Wake up. Show up. Speak up,” he said. “They’re counting on your silence. They’re hoping you’ll stay distracted, or too afraid of being called a bigot to say anything. But this is your kid we’re talking about—not theirs. You don’t need to be politically active to demand the truth. You just need to be a parent who gives a damn. They want you out of the picture. Don’t let them push you out.”