Dupage Policy Journal

An Elmhurst restaurateur with hard-left views recently spoke at a school board meeting to counter the arguments of a concerned parent objecting to what they believe is a Marxist history of the U.S. being taught in schools.

Tom Chavez, an Elmhurst resident who has a child in high school, questioned the school’s use of Howard Zinn’s material in the high school classroom setting without an oppositional text providing another view.

“My question is, 'Why are we even using this at all? Let me know why we can't we find better resources that are, you know, not from a guy who is a self-admitted Marxist,” Chavez told DuPage Policy Journal. “Is that what we want to teach our kids in the school system?”

Zinn was a noted historian whose "A People’s History of the United States of America" is a celebrated text amongst leftists.  

Chavez appeared in front of the Elmhurst School District 205 school board last week. In a statements to the board, he said Zinn’s “biased account of American history rails against white oppressors, the free market and our military.”

To offer a counterpoint to Chavez’s argument, GianCarlo Nardini addressed the school board. 

“Howard Zinn is as American as apple pie,” Nardini told the board. “One man's indoctrination is another man's education. Kids' jobs are to perceive their education and understand it and become adults in that process of education. At high school, the level of history teaching is complex enough for someone to be able to face different representations of the American experience.”

Nardini is known for his River North landmark restaurant Club Lago. He has been an outspoken opponent of conservatism as a whole.

In the past he has called supporters of former President Donald Trump “crackers” and compared deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to excrement.  

The FBI’s files on Zinn indicate he had a long-standing association with Communist movements in the United States.

Chavez said he felt the need to approach the school board after learning that Zinn was the only resource being taught in the classroom by York High School teacher Lindsey DiTomasso.

“There was a text that I got that she told the school district that even though they ordered her to stop teaching CRT (critical race theory), she was going to do it anyway,” Chavez told the DuPage Policy Journal.  

DiTomasso lives in Clarendon Hills. Her husband Dave, is a former professional soccer player who coaches at Elmhurst College.

Chavez was precise in his comments to the school board earlier in the week saying he was concerned with the “growing and pervasive focus in our curriculum and our in-school culture on race, equity, systemic racism and gender identity.

“The board has a role to play in making sure that District 205 teachers' content accurately reflects American ideals,” Chavez told the board.