See more to this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/10/07/see-what-matt-chapman-is-teaching/
By: Diane Benjamin
Ever heard of a Learning Resources Department?
Normal Community High School has one: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zfzNT6fVHQoWP_qpPrqoXpTzqEAlWzMvOonbdQfn8Kw/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.6q39cva8yy6e
28 teachers are listed with an additional 6 support staff.
This guy is one of the listed teachers:
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Note Chapman teaches Civics and US History.
This is also Matt Chapman:
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Evidently Unit 5 doesn’t have a dress code for teachers. Students are expected to respect teachers when they dress like the kids?
Abolish ICE is what far left wing politicians like AOC are demanding. This guy is teaching your kids Civics and US History.
What slant do you think he is putting on both? AOC’s?
Your kids have 1 chance at being educated, is Unit 5 falling them on purpose?
Students should never know the politics of teachers. Matt Chapman is making a political statement that is not allowed under Illinois law:
Wearing a political statement while teaching is arguably part of the teacher’s official duties and could be seen as school-endorsed advocacy. Under Garcetti, that speech may lose protection. Also, districts could argue it interferes with maintaining viewpoint neutrality in the classroom.
Garcetti defined: https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8674&context=allgraduate-thesesdissertations&utm_source=chatgpt.com
Excerpt:
The Supreme Court ruled when a public employee is speaking pursuant to their official duties, First Amendment protections would not apply. Garcetti involved a deputy district attorney; however, it is the standard public employee free speech threshold that is also applied to K-12 public school teachers. Since the Garcetti decision, very few public school teachers have realized First Amendment free speech protections.
I’m told this is not the first time Matt Chapman has worn that tee-shirt.
Don’t expect Unit 5 to do anything when
- The School Board Chair despises anyone on the right: https://blnnews.com/2025/09/30/week-25-does-news-unit-5-and-alex-williams/
- The Superintendent of Schools uses pronouns: https://blnnews.com/2023/03/03/unit-5-and-pronouns/
- Corey Beirne is still employed: https://blnnews.com/2022/09/21/the-truth-about-district-10-candidate-corey-beirne/
The next School Board meeting is October 15th.
The teacher wore this to school? I’m driving so I haven’t had a chance to read the article yet so please forgive me.
I believe Matt Chapman’s dad used to be a superintendent of the district here. I guess that he taught his son well. Regardless this absolutely should be stopped in its tracks he has absolutely no right as a teacher to express his political views in a school or classroom if indeed this is where he is wearing this shirt. The parents of children in unit five should be incensed that a person teaching their children can exhibit this kind of behavior in a school.
I had issues with unit 5 going back 30 years but that is a different story so glad that my children are long gone out of this school district.
Yes, that is accurate regarding his father.
How many seconds would a teacher in Unit 5 last if they wore a shirt with BACK THE BLUE!, or SECURE THE BOARDER!, or AMERICA FIRST!, or Make America Great Again on it???? Unit 5 would tar and feather them and stick a pink slip on their forehead as they were kicked out the door.
TDS is alive and well at Unit 5 and the infection is being purposefully spread by the district and some of its teachers.
Any teacher that thinks that it is their duty to pass on their personal political and social beliefs should not be a teacher. Teachers should teach how to think, not what to think.
If a teacher was wearing a shirt that said “SECURE THE BOARDER!”, then they deserve to be fired. Much like you should be for not knowing how to spell border.
Gee, supporting laws deserves firing?
FROMHERE to build on your comment several years ago I did volunteer work in a food pantry one day I wore a Trump hat in the manager of the facility called me into his office and told me that I had to take the hat off which I did because I enjoyed working there to provide food for those in need.
But I was not going to let the manager get away without expressing my opinion , the next time in I went into his office and said you know I respect your request to remove my hat but if my hat said Hillary on it you would not have said a word about me wearing it he did not deny what I said.
The double standard continues to be alive well in our America!
And going back in the manager’s office I would have worn my Trump hat again voicing my opinion. I will fight tooth and nail to express my freedom of expression just like they do. Freedom is for all, not for some. I am sure they wouldn’t want the media to get wind of what happened.
Reason #4521 to pull your kids from the government schools.
They aren’t safe!
The Learning Resources Department is for special education, by the looks of what the listed teachers are certified to teach through ISBE. These teachers work in classrooms with the subject matter teacher to assist special education students. He isn’t an actual civics teacher, he’s a certified special education teacher, not a civics/social studies teacher.
He’s listed as one
Nope: https://normalcommunity.unit5.org/faculty/faculty/social-studies
That doesn’t change what I posted
I for one think that the shirt provides a discussion point for teenagers. It can bring conversation to the table instead of just reading history our kids are currently part of history. An example is that this is similar to 1940’s Germany. What side of history do you want to be on when ICE is being used to clear out low income housing (south shore drive apartments complex) for KKR( a Trump supporter that is listed as a slum lord) to make room for luxury apartments. This raid damaged the building and destroyed us citizen’s property. Many teen would have a discussion about it with a teacher instead of a parent.
ICE is enforcing the law. End of story for anyone who thinks that’s what he expect them to do. Change the law instead of ignoring it.
ABC reported this morning on a federal judge’s ruling that shows ICE has been unlawfully violating the federal consent decree and their arrests unlawful.
Notice most rulings are overturned by a higher court?
“Death by a thousand cuts.” That is exactly what Matt said would happen if Unit 5 did Not get the tax increase, in his remarks during public comment, in the NCHS auditorium. That is how he characterized how the district would have to make cuts to the budget to in order survive. Cry me a river! He of course doesn’t see that every unit of government constantly asks the tax payers for more money, and that the voters already said NO to the tax increase. That’s the actual, “death by a thousand cuts–constantly asking the tax payers for more money. Really Matt? At 99K/yr, wife at 138K/yr, 3% yearly cola on their golden pensions at retirement. Is that what death by a 1000 cuts looks like? It’s so disappointing that this is who Matt Chapman is. The apple did not fall far from the tree. Dad & Mom receive U5 pensions. Sister teaches Kindergarten. Boo hoo.
JGB, I had considered the t-shirt being an avenue for discussion for the students but at what point does this not become an acceptable practice, ie. how about a teacher wearing a brown shirt with a Nazi emblem on sleeve which would be totally unacceptable that is why there are rules about what kind of attire that you can wear in the school meaning no display whatsoever of anything political or obscene.
As a teacher you are there to teach not make political statements for discussion.
Bottom line leave that part of life up to the parents otherwise if you can’t accept that get out of teaching!
There is a difference between this shirt and a hate group! Brown shirt with a swastika are synonymous with white supremacy. “Abolish ice” has no specific target of racism attached to it.
Or we could make a t-shirt that says abolish Chapman and have someone wear it to school would that be a good topic for discussion, just saying.
Ok I am done no more comments!
I’m genuinely wondering how much you value the safety and education of these children if you are blatantly doxxing their teacher… Do you not see a possible security threat in posting not only the teachers face, but his schedule as well? In this day and age where anything can set anyone off I genuinely believe that this is not only irresponsible, but quite dangerous to post. If you truly value children and their education, stop using them as talking points to push rhetoric. I encourage you to reflect on the possible harm you are creating with this poorly thought out post.
Copying his schedule off the school website is doxxing? 🤦♀️
dox
/däks/
verb INFORMAL
gerund or present participle: doxxing
search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent.
source: Google is free…
None of which applies
This is comical. You probably want ICE to remove their masks.
Yes!! Eff those masks during COVID and eff the masks now.
Your trolls suck, Diane. They only ever come up with whataboutisms and straw man arguments. This one is not entertaining in the slightest. I can’t even come up with a good rebuttal because this one is just so low effort.
I deleted a bunch more!
Good thing nobody asked? Go pray to Biden since you wanna be such a snowflake.
Perhaps we are mistaken about his intentions. Maybe when he says abolish ice, he’s really wanting to promote fossil fuels and global warming to fulfill what the amazing Al Gore said would happen in 2014. Or 2015. Or maybe 2029. Yes that’s it.