A current Palatine School Board member and one-time Black Lives Matter activist has pushed back on claims he unfairly accused a Palatine High School teacher of racism, leading to her termination, saying she shouldn’t be allowed to sue him, because he claims it was her own Facebook posts that ultimately led the school board to fire her.
A Cook County judge is once again weighing whether to dismiss the lawsuit brought by former high school teacher Jeanne Hedgepeth against Tim McGowan.
In the lawsuit, Hedgepeth accuses McGowan of smearing her reputation and allegedly organizing a campaign to get her fired from the teaching job she had held in Township High School District 211 in northwest suburban Palatine for two decades.
According to the complaint, McGowan helped to organize antiracism protests in Palatine, under the banner of BLM.
According to published reports, at the time of the protests, Hedgepeth allegedly posted a message to her personal Facebook page, responding to the protests by saying, in part: “I find the term ‘white privilege’ as racist as the ‘N’ word. You have not walked in my shoes either so do not make assumptions about me and my so called privilege. You think America is racist? Then you have been hoodwinked by the white liberal establishment and race baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.”
According to the complaint, McGowan then targeted Hedgepeth, beginning with a video posted to Facebook on June 15, 2020. In that video, McGowan allegedly falsely accused Hedgepeth of a number of allegedly racist acts.
Among these, McGowan allegedly said Hedgepeth had:
- Encouraged white students at Palatine High School to disrespect Black students;’
- “Encouraged a white student … to disrespect an Indian student in her classroom;”
- “Allowed a white student to get up and say, ‘I’m glad Donald Trump was elected so he could figure out a way to get rid of these ragheads;’”
- “Was destroying lives and validating ignorant little white boys and discouraging a brown lady;” and
- “Has dramatically disturbed students at Palatine High School.”
In her complaint, Hedgepeth asserted the school board only did so in response to McGowan’s alleged campaign against her.
After Hedgepeth was fired, McGowan was easily elected to the District 211 school board in the fall of 2020, with strong support and funding from the district’s teachers’ union.
Hedgepeth has also separately sued the District 211 board for her termination in federal court, alleging they violated her constitutional speech rights by citing her Facebook posts for her termination.
In the case against McGowan, Cook County Judge Jerry Esrig rejected an initial attempt by McGowan to dismiss the lawsuit.
However, after Hedgepeth filed an amended complaint, McGowan again filed a motion to dismiss in late August.
In that motion, McGowan asserts Hedgepeth cannot prove the District 211 board relied on his video in deciding to fire her. Rather, he says, the board solely relied on her Facebook posts.
“It is unreasonable to infer that the District 211 School Board – one of the largest and most sophisticated school boards in Illinois with multiple constituents and a teachers’ union – saw the Facebook video or would terminate (Hedgepeth’s) employment merely because of Mr. McGowan’s post on social media,” McGowan’s lawyers wrote in their motion to dismiss.
They argued McGowan’s statements should not be considered defamatory because they merely expressed “opinion” about Hedgepeth, and did not assert “facts.”
Thus, they said, McGowan’s opinions should be considered protected speech, just as Hedgepeth asserts in her federal case against District 211 that her Facebook posts should not have been used to justify firing her.
McGowan argued Hedgepeth’s claims in the federal lawsuit against District 211 contradict her arguments in the Cook County defamation case.
“It is ironic that that she is claiming she is entitled to free speech for her opinion in one lawsuit, while suing Mr. McGowan for free speech in another,” McGowan’s laywers argue in their motion to dismiss.
“Yet, irony aside, it is problematic that she is claiming a completely different, even opposite, set of facts in the (federal court) case for what she claims was her wrongful termination.”
In filing in that federal case, the District 211 school board members assert Hedgepeth's Facebook posts allegedly created problems for the school district.
"Plaintiff’s posts exhibited racial bias, which impeded the work of the District, interfered with its mission, conflicted with her responsibilities as a teacher, impaired harmony among coworkers, and impeded the performance of her duties," the District 211 Board of Education said in a defense document, filed in federal court in Chicago on Sept. 14.
"Multiple students and parents told the District in no uncertain terms that they did not want Plaintiff to remain employed and did not want her as a teacher."
Judge Esrig has not yet ruled on McGowan’s new motion to dismiss.
McGowan is represented in the action by attorneys Kristin D. Tauras, Sara E. Cook and James A. Cook, of the firm of McKenna Storer, of Chicago.
Hedgepeth is represented in the Cook County action by attorney Joel F. Handler, of Chicago. In the federal case, she is represented by attorneys Paul J. Orfanedes, of Judicial Watch, of Washington, D.C., and Christine Svenson, of Svenson Law Offices, of Palatine.
District 211 Board of Education and school board members are represented by attorneys William R. Pokorny, Erin S. Johnson and Sally J. Scott, of the firm of Franczek P.C., of Chicago.