Dupage Policy Journal

Sal Falbo thinks Erica Bray-Parker could use a new lesson plan.

“I don’t think her actions were the right thing to be teaching her students,” Falbo told the DuPage Policy Journal as rumors of Bray-Parker's attempting to bully him and other business owners in Wheaton into removing signs from their properties that were for political candidates she doesn’t agree with continue to swirl.

“We all have a right to freedom of speech, and as a teacher you would think she would know and understand that,” he added.

Erica Bray-Parker

According to local business owner Jane Shaw, all the drama began when Bray-Parker, who teaches at Glenbard North and is an instructor at the Civics Club, penned a letter to Falbo and other local business owners demanding that they remove posters of former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a Republican of Wheaton, from in front of their businesses, vowing never to return to their establishments if they failed to comply.

Bray-Parker, who is running for Wheaton City Council in District 4, is also accused of using her students as part of her “bullying” campaign, Shaw added. 

“I don’t live in Wheaton but if I did there’s no way I would vote for her,” said Faldo, part owner of Wheaton Bowl. “She’s obviously an activist, but part of the responsibility in that is understanding that everyone has the same free speech rights that you do. On top of that, the signs she was complaining about weren’t even on my property; they were in front. She’s really made an issue out of a nonissue.”

Meanwhile, Ives, who relinquished her seat in Springfield with the start of the legislative session, has been adamant in expressing her opinion that she doesn’t think what she calls Bray-Parker’s brand of politics is right for Wheaton.

"Erica Bray-Parker should not be elected; make sure she isn’t,” she told the DuPage Policy Journal. "She is unfit to represent business owners and the respectful, hard-working taxpayers of Wheaton. She is a civics teacher who is not civil.”

Bray-Parker also raised eyebrows in May 2018, when she penned a letter in the Daily Herald assailing Peter Breen, a Republican of Lombard who was a state representative at the time, over what she perceived to be his inadequate stance on the issue of gun control.