A Chicago Father is Placed on a Flight Watchlist After Standing Up Against Pornography in Kids’ Schools
It’s a story you’d never expect to read – a Chicago father, Terry Newsome, was placed on a flight watchlist by the Department of Justice after simply expressing his opinion on pornographic and sexually explicit books in his children’s school library.
In the summer of 2021, Newsome, along with several other parents in Chicago’s Downers Grove district, objected to certain books in children’s libraries. In December of 2022, when Newsome attempted to board a plane to Phoenix, he found out he’d been placed on a government flight watchlist.
Newsome, his family, and a few friends were on their way to Turning Point USA’s Amerifest conference in Arizona when they encountered a problem printing their boarding passes.
After they finally got their tickets, Newsome found out he couldn’t go through the TSA pre-check lane that he’d been using for over a decade. At first, Newsome said he was confused. But later, through a letter, he found out the reason why.
Newsome said he’d been given the “quad-S” designation, as The Epoch Times reported, which subjected him to far more screening than individuals with normal boarding passes. The Epoch Times pointed out that SSSS fliers often receive a “full-body pat down,” have their hands and feet “swabbed to check for explosives,” and must remove every item from their bag “while the bag is thoroughly searched.”
When Newsome finally made it to his gate, he and his family had missed their flight due to all of the extra screenings. Before he could board a new flight, the airline had to get FBI approval for him to fly.
The Epoch Times mentioned that the same thing happened when he attempted to fly home from the conference a few days later. Newsome sent a Freedom of Information request to the FBI asking for more details regarding his experience but they rejected his request, saying the federal government can “neither confirm nor deny whether a particular person is on any terrorist watch list” out of “confidentiality of government.”
Newsome still isn’t 100 percent clear as to why he was flagged as an SSSS flier, but he told Epoch Times he thinks its because of his “past political activities.” After Newsome became a local spokesman for the other concerned parents in his kids school district, he received threats from Antifia and opposition from Illinois congressman, Rep. Sean Casten.
Following the Epoch Times’ original piece on Newsome’s outspokenness, he received online threats and threats from school board members with close ties to Casten, too. He also attended the Jan. 6 rally which, to our current government’s eyes, is an automatic red flag.
It’s clear that the government is trying to hinder Newsome’s freedom of expression and prevent him from exercising his First Amendment rights.
This is yet another example of the government trying to silence dissenting voices, especially those of conservative Americans. Parents have the right to decide what their children are exposed to in school and should not be punished for speaking out against inappropriate material.
