If you were familiar with Oak Park it would be even more funny! It is a bastion of liberalism. It's also made up of very rich and middle to lower middle class. Right outside of the city, it's a great location. The demarcation line between the 'haves' and 'haven't much' is the Eisenhower Expressway, (I-290 if looking at a map.) Racially it's very diverse, it's also bordered on the east by Austin, a low income, black neighborhood of Chicago. The infamous, "West side".
I read the article to my 8th graders. They appreciated the 'experiment', but they didn't understand how the kids could be so hateful to her wearing the McCain shirt. They'd been caught up in the election too, but while they tried to convince a couple Obama holdouts, they did it by using their positions, not 'cult.' Difference is neighborhood, not schools or teachers.