{"id":594906,"date":"2026-05-02T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=594906"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:25:00","slug":"doj-probes-36-illinois-school-districts-over-sexual-orientation-content-in-pre-k-12-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=594906","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K\u201312 Classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K\u201312 Classes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Naveen Anthrappully via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Department of Justice\u2019s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division has launched multiple investigations into 36 Illinois public school districts to assess whether sexual orientation and gender ideology content is being taught in pre-K-12 grade classes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If the districts are determined to be teaching sexual orientation and gender ideology-related content, \u201cthe investigations will examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction,\u201d <\/strong>the DOJ said in an April 30 statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation will also assess whether the Illinois School Districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces<\/strong> (such as bathrooms and locker rooms) and girls\u2019 sports teams based on biological sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

The probe will cover whether the districts violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. The districts are \u201crecipients of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding,\u201d the DOJ said.<\/p>\n

The investigations will also look into whether the school districts adhere to the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s \u201cextensive precedents on parental rights\u201d as affirmed in Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor cases.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Mirabelli v. Bonta case<\/a>, the Supreme Court blocked a California policy on March 2 that prohibited school personnel from informing parents when their children requested changing their preferred gender identity at schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy,\u201d the court wrote in its decision. \u201cBut those policies cut out the primary protectors of children\u2019s best interests: their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Mahmoud v. Taylor lawsuit<\/a>, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Maryland parents, who, for religious reasons, wanted to opt their children out from getting exposed to school storybooks promoting LGBT lifestyles.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the DOJ\u2019s probe into 36 Illinois school districts, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said, \u201cThis Department of Justice is determined to put an end to local school authorities keeping parents in the dark about how sexuality and gender ideology are being pushed in classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSupreme Court precedent leaves no doubt:<\/strong> parents have the fundamental right and primary authority to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children,\u201d he said. \u201cThis includes exempting their children from ideological instruction that contradicts their values or decisions about their children\u2019s health and best interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Illinois school districts under investigation include Bloomington Public Schools District, Lick Creek Community Consolidated School District, O\u2019Fallon Community Consolidated School District, and Pembroke Community Consolidated School District.<\/p>\n

The Epoch Times reached out to these school districts for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.<\/p>\n

The full list of school districts being probed was posted on the DOJ website.<\/p>\n

Gender Ideology Investigations<\/h2>\n

On April 17, the Department of Education said it found four school districts in Kansas to have violated Title IX and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.<\/p>\n

These districts had policies \u201cthat were likely to prevent schools from notifying parents of their child\u2019s so-called \u2018gender transition,\u2019 even if the parent requested their child\u2019s records,\u201d the department said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked<\/a> 46 states and territories to remove gender identity references from teaching materials, failing which they would face penalties, including the termination or suspension of federal funding.<\/p>\n

This was met with a legal challenge by a coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia, which filed a lawsuit in September 2025, arguing that terminating funding would harm \u201cthe very populations Congress intended to help.\u201d The plaintiffs said complying with the order would conflict with their own laws and policies that require \u201cinclusive\u201d sex education curricula.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government\u2019s far-reaching efforts to erase people who don\u2019t fit one of two gender labels is illegal and wrong\u2014and would deny services to millions more in the process,\u201d Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. The case is still ongoing in the court.<\/p>\n

The HHS justified its order by citing a Jan. 29, 2025, executive order signed by President Donald Trump\u2014Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling\u2014which said that no federal dollars should go towards indoctrinating children in \u201cradical, anti-American ideologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the HHS order, Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for the department\u2019s Administration for Children and Families, said that \u201cfederal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 05\/01\/2026 – 21:25<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K\u201312 Classes Authored by Naveen Anthrappully via The Epoch Times, The Department of Justice\u2019s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division has launched multiple investigations into 36 Illinois public school districts to assess whether sexual orientation and gender ideology content is being taught in pre-K-12 grade classes.… Continue reading DOJ Probes 36 Illinois School Districts Over Sexual Orientation Content In Pre-K\u201312 Classes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=594906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/594907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=594906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=594906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=594906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}