While the bill likely will go nowhere, it’s unfathomable that it could even be proposed: In the relevant part, a bill now pending in the Illinois legislature would criminalize, as “parental bullying,” any parent who knowingly, with intent to discipline or alter the behavior of a child, says or messages anything that would coerce the child.
Think of all that would criminalize: Yelling at your child to stop throwing food at the table. Chewing out your kid for not doing homework. Giving your child a mean look for using foul language. The list is endless.
To top it off, the website of the bill’s sponsor, Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago), says he “is a firm believer in the power of responsible parenting and established the Council on Responsible Fatherhood, which aims to support fathers and help them to become more responsible and present.”
Labeling disciplined parenting as “bullying” may be precisely the last thing Chicago needs. Only 11% of Black kids in Chicago public schools read at grade level. Just 6% can do math at grade level. That’s a parental failure, not just school failure. And crime? Can any sane person deny that Chicago’s crime epidemic stems in part from parents who don’t discipline?
Ford introduced his parental bullying bill in December. It has no other sponsors and was recently assigned to the House Rules Committee, which probably means it will not move forward. Still, how could an elected lawmaker even propose such a thing?
-Mark Glennon
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
I’ll bet his kids are real brats.
Wow…what a joke.
Why do Dems think they need to save our children from the embarrassment of parental discipline.Remember how they were going to save our children from death by mandating the vax. Now as more info comes out, there is a greater risk of developing myocarditis in the young. Name one government department that is presently successful in helping children – CPS, DCFS? If he wants to save children, perhaps he should re-educate the communities in the importance of having 2 parent families. How many children are on the street commiting crimes and are also victims of crimes. He’s trying to create… Read more »
We’re at a point in which politicians think they can manage our households – child discipline, natural gas ranges, handguns, etc. And guilty by both sides of the aisle. If you don’t think government is too big, these examples should wake you up. We need to send a clear and distinct message – limited government, limited regulation, freedoms restored.
La Shawn Ford’s picture appears next the the words “Peter Principle” in my dictionary.
Great Googly-moogly, Mark. What the heck is going on in Springfield!??
Leadership requires that a person NOT have an attitude of “I don’t like it, therefore it must be eliminated”. Rep. Ford seems unclear on many things.
See his response below in his comment.
This bill is complete nonsense! If you don’t correct your kids when they are little, they will end up in jail when they are big. Parenting needs to start not stop! The iPad/tablet is the new parent. It is sad that parents do not even talk to their kids anymore. I leave the store if there is a kid screaming. I’m done with the poor parenting. Kids only cry when they are hurt or their needs are not addressed. But all kids need discipline. The state should not be responsible for raising your children. If you can’t raise your children… Read more »
Certain people are too lazy to care for their spawn, they’d rather the pedo government take care.
Before you try to make rules for inside my house and for my family, try doing your job competently. The roads are terrible, crime is out of control, taxes are oppressive, business climate is terrible, schools are failing and people are fleeing the state. DCFS is catastrophic. Your arrogance is astonishing !!!
https://time.com/3935308/when-parents-publicly-shame-their-kids/
Rep. Ford: 1) Your bill goes far, far beyond the examples described in that column, and would criminalize all routine discipline. 2) The last people in the world who should be mandating rules about parenting are Illinois and Chicago politicians. As a group, you are miserably incompetent and have all but destroyed a once great state.
Look no further than the states horrific incompetent child abuse in running dcfs at astronomical $costs$…..maybe shawn along w jb is still blaming rauner?
Just another criminal!
Next bill for Rep. Ford to introduce – “Vegetables”. Not all parents feed their children the proper vegetables at every meal every day. This can harm their growth. Harming a child’s growth is a serious offense which can affect a child’s mental, physical, and emotional well being. Parents found guilty of not providing the proper vegetables at every meal every day shall be punished and fined to the fullest extent of the law!
But what if a parent yells at the kids to eat their veges? I guess win for the state, parents can get punished no matter what.
You’re out of your mind. Where’s your mother?
“””— any parent who knowingly, with intent to discipline or alter the behavior of a child, says or messages anything that would coerce the chid—“””
The logical conclusion to this type of legislation is to embolden an untouchable class of individuals…
Entitlement will soar through the roof…
Chaos will rule…
Just like the marxist’s planned…
Consider the source and it. Eco Mrs abundantly clear. No rules, no accountability. Hmm… sounds racist!
The goal is to have children turn against their parents and pledge their loyalty to the state. The example of Mao’s cultural revolution in 1966. The Chinese communists took over IIRC in the 30’s and Mao became the supreme leader in the 40’s. The cultural revolution was something entirely new, that came 20 years into his reign, but they had been preparing to turn children against their parents for a long time. When the cultural revolution came, it was a natural transition to turn your parents in for crimes against the state, because the indoctrination had already taken place. In… Read more »
Rep Ford should know it is dangerous to create a climate where children are encouraged by the states to turn in their parents for seemingly innocuous crimes. Most ‘bullying’ is going to happen inside the child’s home. He or she would get mad at mom and dad, call the police, and have them likely arrested and charged with a petty offense. Russia also demanded that children turn their parents into the police for ‘crimes’. It starts out with petty crimes, like parental bullying, but then it escalates from there. Every Soviet school child learned about Pavel Trofimovich Morozov Pavlik Morozov,… Read more »
This young man turned his parents into authorities in Soviet Russia…
The red guard were children, raised by the state, turned against their parents who refused to reject the ‘four olds’: old ideas, customs, culture, and habits of mind How many years until the language in LaShawn’s bill is changed define ‘bullying’ as parents rejecting the leftism’s four olds? Children encouraged to turn in their own parents because they refuse to acknowledge gender transitions, won’t address the child with the pronoun du jour, or a parent uses a racial slur, excepts to conform to gender roles at home,or the parent refuses to acknowledge their privilege or some other leftist nonsense. “It… Read more »
“Still, how could an elected lawmaker even propose such a thing?” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/27/china-cultural-revolution-sons-guilt-zhang-hongping China’s Cultural Revolution: son’s guilt over the mother he sent to her death Zhang Hongbing was 16 when he denounced his mother for criticising Chairman Mao. Now Zhang wants to make amends They beat her, bound her and led her from home. She knelt before the crowds as they denounced her. Then they loaded her on to a truck, drove her to the outskirts of town and shot her. Fang Zhongmou’s execution for political crimes during the Cultural Revolution was commonplace in its brutality but more shocking to… Read more »
None of this is new; we’ve seen all of this before. Communism requires total allegiance to the state. Children turn in their parents to show their commitment to the cause. 99$% of bullying would be inside the child’s home, who would then be required to call the police on his or her own parents. But it’s happened before too. Every Soviet Russian school child learned the likely fictional story of the Pioneer martyr Pavel Trofimovich Morozov, who turned in his own father to the authorities, and was sentenced to death, for collaborating with enemies of the soviet state. It was… Read more »
Illinois: the tip of the enemy spear.
Simply look at him and all becomes clear.
Well since most of his constituents don’t know who daddy is…..