Waukegan High School Student Protest February 6, 2026
Frank McCormick, a former public school teacher in Waukegan, broke the story about the student walk-out protest at which the students hung President Trump in effigy on a cross. In separate posts, Frank wrote on his X account:
Waukegan High School had an “anti-ICE” protest today with a crucified Donald Trump display. I want the name of every staff member that aided or participated in this. Truancy is a crime and political speech while working as a public employee is fireable.
What would the media reaction have been if a rural White high school did this with an effigy of Obama and a bunch of American flags?
What’s obvious is that this wasn’t just a student-led protest. It was organized and supported by the administration and faculty.
The local police department even supported the event.
This isn’t a new scene in Illinois. From the city to the suburbs, students are being encouraged and allowed to walk out of school to protest whatever is the political hot topic of the day. Last year, it was walking out in support of Palestinians, which actually meant they were pro-Hamas protests.
And these walkouts are coordinated. Chicago Sun Times reported that alsoon Friday, “Dozens of students at Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood walked out of school during sixth period Friday in protest of immigration policy and ICE tactics across the country.”
Earlier in the week, on Monday, even more students walked out. CBS News reported, “Hundreds of Chicago high school students held a walkout to demand an end to violent immigration enforcement policies Monday. Students from Amundsen High School, Mather High School, Northside College Prep, and Roosevelt High School all took part in the protest. At Amundsen, lines of students streamed out of the doors around 12 p.m. They chanted and held sighs, calling for ICE to leave Chicago.”
The suburbs also saw protests. An attentive resident sent me these photos of the walkout notice for Glenbard South in Glen Ellyn.
In the case of Glenbard South, the administration did put out a message to the students and parents indicating no support for the walkout.
Back to Waukegan High School. The school is nearly 84% Hispanic, 10% Black, and 2% White. The students are poorly educated. Although the administration reports a 84% graduation rate, using the new lower standards, only 23.5% read at grade-level, and only 13.6% are at grade-level in Math, according to the Illinois State Board of Education Report Card on the school.
The previous year, before Gov. Pritzker lowered the cut scores for proficiency, only 10% of students were proficient in reading and only 6% were proficient in Math.
Waukegan High School is a failure factory. It’s an expensive daycare for teenagers, costing taxpayers an enormous amount of money.
Here is a screenshot of the School Snapshot from the ISBE website:
These students are not just uneducated, they are mal-educated. They will undoubtedly have few options for employment in the future and likely require taxpayer support for years post “graduation.” Instead of protesting ICE, the students should be in intensive one-on-one tutoring sessions. The folks protesting should be parents and taxpayers who are getting nothing for the money they are paying to Waukegan CUSD 60.
I’ll wait for State Rep. Rita Mayfield to raise any concern about her poor performing district. She’s captured by the teacher unions and will not advocate for her constituents. It’s all one big political game to them to protect positions, salaries, and above all, pensions that will reach over $2 million dollars and double that for administrators.
There are a few honest teachers willing to stand up to the system. Former Waukegan teacher Frank McCormick left the teaching profession after exposing the Woke culture in his school. In one of his Substack accounts, he “confesses” the sins of a teacher who bent the knee to the bureaucracy before finally exposing the harm of the system. In that blog, Frank wrote:
The Early Years
The idealistic naivete of youth betrayed me when the realities of public education were revealed: bureaucracy, corruption, and collective apathy. This was a betrayal of what progressive education was supposed to be. I was filled with righteous indignation and I committed to rising above a culture of indifference. My mission was to help the institution live up to its progressive ideals whatever the cost. As such, I openly disregarded the Draconian rules and procedures that shackled teachers and students to mediocrity and made it a point to verbalize my defiance. When my superiors and colleagues objected, I would chastise and remind them of our purpose: to uplift the downtrodden masses. For a time I believed I could awaken others to do the same, though I was blind to how institutionalization had plundered their souls of morality. In time, I would suffer the same fate.
Frank is a rarity in education. Conservative teachers hide their beliefs from colleagues and administration, first because they actually believe they are there to teach not indoctrinate, so they won’t tip their hand about their conservative values. Secondly, because they know the backlash to their career if they are outspoken, they keep quiet.
Just ask the West Chicago teacher what happens if you speak your mind, even on your personal time. The teacher resigned this week after being put on leave for allegedly posting on his personal social media, “Go ICE”.
Following that post, the West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey berated him publicly. The Chicago Tribune reported that the outrage machine kicked into gear, too.
“An online petition encouraging community members to “show the district that you do not stand for this teacher continuing to educate” had more than 530 signatures as of Thursday night.
“(A) D33 teacher commented, ‘Go ICE!’ in response to a community article,” the petition read. “The casual way in which he publicly promoted the actions of ICE in our area is inappropriate and unsuitable for an educator.”
While a number of people spoke out against the teacher. A few brave citizens spoke up for him. I appreciate their willingness to do so. As reported by the Chicago Tribune:
Samanta Reuter, whose kids attend Gary Elementary School, spoke positively about the teacher and said she thought it was sad that he “felt like he had no choice but to resign.”
“My 8-year-old here said to me the other day that … people can make bad choices but not be bad people,” she said.
Corinne Ingrum urged the community to “pick your battles more wisely.”
“I get that the state of our country is in turmoil,” she said. “I’m not discrediting your fear. We all have fear. But the problem is bigger than any one person. … If you want change, please speak to your elected politicians, not ruin one man’s life.”
More citizens need to stand up to the school administration, the school boards, and other elected officials who are running systems that are teaching our kids how to be activists, subverting the rule of law instead of explaining to people and students what the law says about federal immigration laws. It’s your community. Failure to get involved means you will be governed by those who do.
Meanwhile, in the statehouse, the Democrats wasted time filing meaningless bills that aim to block and investigate ICE and call on them to stay away from voting sites, insinuating that their presence would suppress the vote. Does that make sense? Are the Democrats expecting illegals to show up at polling places?
Filing deadline for bills was this past Friday, February 6th. For the second year of the 104th General Assembly, between the House and the Senate 2,674 new bills have been filed, 1,313 in the Senate and 1,361 in the House. I am still going through the over 700 pages that give a short description of the bills.
Here are a few thoughts that already caught my attention.
SB2809 – Amends the Department of Human Services Act and the State Finance Act. Creates the Operation Midway Blitz Recovery Fund, a special fund in the State treasury, to receive and disburse funds to community-based organizations to provide mental health services and mobilize rapid response networks for Illinois residents affected by immigration enforcement activities. Provides for the transfer of $10,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Operation Midway Blitz Recovery Fund on July 1, 2026 and on July 1, 2027. Effective July 1, 2026.
Hb4730 – Requires the Department of Human Services to, subject to available funding, establish a Families Receiving Emergency Support for Hunger (FRESH) Program to provide FRESH benefits to households subject to termination of the household’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or a reduction in the household’s monthly SNAP benefit allotment, if the termination or reduction in SNAP benefits occurred as a result of one or more members of the household failing to meet SNAP work requirements.
HB4604 – Creates the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Task Force Act. Creates the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Task Force. Sets forth provisions regarding administrative support, membership, compensation, meetings, and hearings.
Isn’t that racist? There are so many of these task forces, laws, NGOs that are funded simply based on race.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to terrible legislation filed this year.
Then there are the goofy ones: diaper ingredient labeling, making the Italian Beef Sandwich the official sandwich of Illinois, and prohibiting the release of helium balloons. As for the campfire tax bill that has received some media attention, in my opinion, that is a misreading of the Democrat bill, so don’t get riled up over that one.
I’ll have more to report on specific legislation in future newsletters.
IN OTHER NEWS
China’s American College Takeover
It has become increasingly difficult for ILLINOIS students to get accepted into the University of Illinois. And if they do, it is no longer the ‘bargain’ that it once was for in-state residents.
So why are American universities prioritizing foreign tuition over domestic talent? And why have 6,000 Chinese nationals found their home at U of I?
They are even broadcasting Illini football games in Mandarin!
This YouTube documentary delves into who is really funding our education system and how this may pose a legitimate threat to our national security:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ykPKDdZaL4
There’s a new website that launched a few months ago called Affordable Naperville. People can access their information at this link: https://affordablenaperville.com/
The website is “Run by Concerned Citizens” and they are “Speaking Up for the Taxpayers and Ratepayers of Naperville.” The website is easy to use and offers a lot of useful information for taxpayers to consider.
These are the types of independent activities that can make a difference in communities by informing voters about what is happening. This isn’t easy work, by the way. The information they provide is detailed and well-researched, and they track actions by government bodies, so citizens have a place to go for information. I encourage residents to sign-up for their newsletter and for other motivated taxpayers to start a similar website in their own communities.
Introducing you to Statisnostics.com and its associated other data sites. These sites are all linked at Data Center: https://www.oakbrook-law.com/data-center.
- www.StatisNostics.com: Search for comprehensive information about any address in the United States.
- www.FiscalTrim.com: Check out financial information for any unit of government in the United States.
- www.SatisCation.com: Evaluate your own subjective life satisfaction index where you live now and compare it to any other location in the United States.
- www.SpendingPressure.com: What’s your Spending Pressure from all of the units of government funding themselves from your location?
These are taxpayer-centric platforms created by Edward Tiesenga, a very smart Village of Oakbrook Trustee and a lawyer by trade, and few other brilliant data people at various universities. These sites allow you to investigate the spending going on in your community and compare to other places across the United States. It isn’t just financial data though. They measure other qualities of life such as transportation systems, schools, crime, culture and climate.
Take some time to check them out.