It's former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's alma mater. It served as the backdrop for a myriad coming-of-age and teen-angst films. It is one of the most famous public high schools in the nation, set in one of the most idyllic suburbs in America. 

Now, New Trier High School has gone full progressive, as school administrators grapple with guilt over the school's whiteness and affluence. 

New Trier is located in Winnetka, Ill., on Chicago's bucolic North Shore. Because of the school district's affluence and predominately white student body, progressive school administrators felt the kids needed lectures on such topics as civil rights, income inequality, voter suppression and police brutality (meanwhile, blacks are gunning each other down in droves just about 15 miles south of that school).

Some parents have fought the content of Tuesday's seminars, but they're outnumbered. Fox News provides details: 

Administrators and many parents have said the seminar is particularly important because of the school’s population. About 85 percent of the school’s 4,000 students are white with similar demographics among the teachers. In Winnetka, home to the main campus, the median household income is more than $200,000 and stately brick mansions are common.

The school board said last week the civil rights seminar was already set, but some parents called the seminar too political and they urged the school to have more diverse speakers, Fox 32 Chicago reported.

The “Parents of New Trier” group said there is not enough diversity and the seminar day is too politically progressive and left-wing. The group, made up of several hundred parents, called for more conservative viewpoints.

Some parents and conservative groups have deemed the event during Black History Month "radical" and "divisive." Dueling petitions circulated, heated emails were exchanged and hundreds of people packed a school board meeting beyond capacity.

"The school went about this in a way that ensures it will be narrow and divisive," said Betsy Hart, who has two children enrolled. Hart, a senior writer at the conservative Heritage Foundation who says her school activism is separate from her day job, expects the parent group to continue pushing for more conservative voices at New Trier High.

Among some of the requests, the group wants to add research supporting voter identification laws to a session on voter suppression and ensure a panel on affirmative action includes contrasting views such as the suggestion that it's detrimental for minorities.

The group presented the district with a binder full of research and an annotated schedule for the day: yellow highlights for language the parents find objectionable and green for suggested alternatives.

Unfortunately, while hundreds signed the petition in protest, New Trier is a very large high school comprising thousands of students and families. Some of the neighborhoods incorporated into New Trier's district are stacked with people who live by the motto: "I'm liberal because I'm white, wealthy and feel guilty." Thus, while 450 people signed a petition opposing the progressive bent of the seminar, roughly 5,000 signatures called for the program roster to remain as it is. 

"You shouldn't feel guilty for attending such a great school and having a great education," said one critic. "You should feel blessed."

Indeed. 

Meanwhile, however, the indoctrination has clearly taken hold. In response, 17-year-old senior Celia Buckman said the seminar "really makes you think about the kind of privilege that your community really has."