Dupage Policy Journal

Laura Hois, Republican candidate for Illinois House District 81, says Community Unit School District 300's (CUSD 300) alleged facilitation of student gender transitions without parental consent is "evil." 

Her remarks come amid allegations from a whistleblower who claimed elementary students in CUSD 300 were prodded to transition their genders, including changing names, pronouns and gender presentation, without parental notification. 

“I am not surprised,” Hois told the DuPage Policy Journal. “District 99 staff at DGN and DGS have been trained by state and national boards of education to avoid answering parents' questions. They remain silent, deflect to another topic or flat-out lie to them. This is evil. Board members, teachers, counselors and staff who deceive parents by not telling them the truth should be fired. Problem is, this is top down. If teachers and staff want to be paid, the unions require them to follow NEA and ISBA directives.” 

Backing the whistleblower’s claims is Laurie Parman, a 26-year veteran of CUSD 300 and now a political candidate running for House District 66. 

Parman described a pre-COVID staff training where teachers were allegedly instructed on how to obscure students’ involvement in LGBTQ clubs. 

“If a parent called and asked, ‘Where was my student after school on Tuesday?’ and the student was at the LGBTQ club, you were told to say, ‘They were at the Swans Club. It’s a writing club.’ They even said, ‘Because we do writing in there.’ That was the exact wording,” Parman said. 

Parman said the message to staff left her deeply unsettled. 

“The purpose of this lesson that we got on lying to parents—it was supposed to be about mental health,”  Parman said. 

Emphasizing the seriousness of the allegations, Hois urged parents to recognize the reality of what she described as deeply troubling actions taking place inside elementary schools.

“Many parents don't want to believe that elementary schools would actually facilitate young students' gender transitions, but schools are doing this. It is real, and it is absolutely outrageous,” she said. “It is a violation of trust that not only crosses ethical boundaries through corrupt, deceptive lying to parents, it is also criminal conduct that diminishes parents' constitutional right to raise their child as they see fit. They forgot about 8th commandment: ‘thou shall not bear false witness.’” 

According to Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison, student gender transitions without parental notification are happening across multiple Illinois school districts, not just in CUSD 300. 

Morrison pointed to the widespread use of “gender support plans” that explicitly allow schools to withhold information from parents. 

“Multiple districts, including Chicago Public Schools and suburban systems, have quietly adopted ‘gender support plans’ that explicitly state parents may not be informed if a student socially transitions at school,” Morrison told South Cook News. “This is not isolated, it’s part of a larger ideological agenda.” 

According to Defending Education, CUSD 300 uses a Student Gender Support Plan based on a Gender Spectrum template that lets students control disclosure of their gender identity, requires use of preferred names and pronouns, and grants access to facilities accordingly, all without mandatory parental involvement. 

The plan also asks if guardians are aware and supportive, outlining steps if they are not.

In the case of CUSD 300, neither Superintendent Dr. Martina Smith nor its school board members have responded to the allegations. 

“It leaves the definite impression that foreign countries are paying school board members to promote marxist ideology to undermine the Republic which is the United States of America,” she said. “No response means school board members have something to hide, when in fact they have a lot to hide. If they were fulfilling their oaths of office to uphold the U.S. and Illinois constitutions properly and honestly, they would be proud of what they do, and answer to the community.”

She said those in educational leadership support such policies should be removed. 

“Their dishonest, deceptive conduct must be publicly exposed,” Hois said. “They should be removed and prosecuted for turning their backs on families who must all pay taxes for public education.” 

On curriculum transparency, Hois says District 99's leadership deliberately withholds information from parents about classroom content and materials, particularly those related to gender and sexuality.

"The District 99 school board has refused to disclose information about the curriculum being taught to students for several years now,” Hois said. “The Board would not admit ‘Gender Unicorn’ was being taught in sophomore year sex education classes, that the ‘Gender Queer’ book in its library is pornographic, and teachers secretly promoting PRIDE are protected and rewarded.” 

Relatedly, a bill introduced during the 2024 Illinois legislative session by Hois’ House District 81 opponent, incumbent State Rep. Anne Stava Murray (D-Downers Grove), sought to redefine child abuse to include parents denying minors access to "gender-affirming services," though it did not specify what those services entailed. 

Stava-Murray’s proposal also would have allowed minors to consent to such care without parental approval and protected healthcare providers from penalties for delivering it. The bill drew strong opposition from critics, including the activist group Awake Illinois, who called it anti-parent and warned it could lead to parents losing custody for refusing gender-related medical treatments. 

The measure ultimately failed to advance in the legislature.

Hois was narrowly defeated by Stava-Murray in the 2020 general election for Illinois House District 81. Stava-Murray won with 52.6% of the vote to Hois’s 47.4%.

In response to schools' actions and those of Stava-Murray and allied legislators, Hois urged conservatives and parents to push back.

“Conservative leaders must stand up and speak out at board meetings and at local community gatherings to strongly oppose harmful woke school policies like D.E.I. that encourage students to disrespect or rebel against their parents, that limit parent's involvement in their child's education, and that persuade students to ‘listen to a trusted adult’ rather than to their parents,” she said.  

Drawing connections to state policy, she criticized the legislature’s prior action in regard to allowing minors to get abortions without parental notification. 

“The Illinois state legislature took away parental notification of a daughter's abortion (in 2021), despite thousands of witness slips filed opposing that bill,” she said. “State legislators should reverse that decision to again require parental notice. The state legislature had no authority to address 'gender support plans' by assigning rights based on gender identity. It should have focused on improving the state of our State rather than diminishing parental rights and destroying families.” 

Hois further demanded accountability and legal consequences. 

“State legislators and government officials who fail to abide with ‘zero tolerance’ for lying to parents, sexually influencing students, encouraging girls to transition to be boys or allowing boys to compete in girls sports should be unseated, sent home, and prosecuted for their crimes,” she said. 

Hois made a call to action for concerned parents to reclaim influence over their children’s education and push back against controversial school policies.

“We need more parents to step up and get vocal in speaking out against corrupt school boards and insist that they eliminate gender identity, social emotional learning, and transitioning from schools and get back to what Illinois statutes require: excellent, merit-based education for K-12,” she said.