A federal judge will let a former Highland Park High School assistant principal advance part of her lawsuit claiming her 2019 demotion constituted illegal retaliation on the part of school district leadership, insisting she was punished for attempting to shed light on administrative misconduct.
Amy Burnetti, a former assistant principal at the north suburban high school, sued Township High School District 113 in the spring of 2021. Along with District 113, which operates Highland Park and Deerfield high schools, named defendants include HPHS Principal Deborah Finn; former interim District 113 superintendents Linda Yonke and Ben Martindale; and former District 113 Board of Education members Elizabeth Garlovsky and Debbie Hymen.
According to her complaint, Burnetti was promoted to assistant principal at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year while District 113 was under investigation by the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office for allegations of improper destruction and deletion of paper and digital records, including materials involved in litigation. Burnetti said she “provided evidence and testimony” to assist with the county’s criminal investigation and alleged that cooperation was material in two subsequent demotions.
“Burnetti’s own allegations show that she brought her claims relating to her first demotion — which occurred back in 2018 — too late,” Tharp wrote, dismissing those claims with prejudice. “As for the second demotion a year later, Burnetti has alleged facts sufficient to raise an inference that the Board, but not the individual defendants, caused her injury.”
In addition to the records destruction, Burnetti referenced a time when then-Superintendent Chris Dignam tasked her with telling a student’s mother the student’s father could no longer be on campus owing to his status as a sex offender. She said Garlovsky and Hymen, who also opposed the documents investigation, also bristled at “the sex-offender parent from campus,” according to Tharp, and participated in efforts to reverse the decision.
Burnetti argued her allegations should survive because she didn’t begin to suspect retaliation until 2019, when she alleged Garlovsky and Hymen urged parents to complain about the new administration, but Tharp noted “she knew that she had participated in an investigation into a former administration” at the time of her 2018 demotion, and when an interim superintendent removed her from a fine arts department chairmanship, the stated reasons were “inconsistent with her positive performance reviews.”
The second demotion, in December 2019, came after Burnetti resumed serving as a department chairwoman. This time Finn reassigned her to a teaching position, and again Burnetti pointed to exemplary personnel evaluations. The defendants did not contest the timeliness, but argued Burnetti’s complaint failed to state claims for violation of First or 14th amendment rights.
“As the defendants point out, the complaint does not spell out directly that the board approved Burnetti’s demotion pursuant to official policy,” Tharp wrote. “The complaint’s allegations do, however, reasonably support that inference, which is all that is required at the pleadings stage.”
Burnetti specifically alleged the board issued a public nonrenewal notice when she refused to resign as department chairwoman, which Tharp said appears to have been an exercise of authority. Further, a Burnetti response brief alleged “the board sets policy for the district,” Tharp wrote, making it sufficient to avoid dismissal.
Turning to the liability of individual defendants, Tharp said Burnett’s “complaint does not explain how Yonke or Martindale contributed to the 2019 demotion,” indeed noting they were no longer in power at the time. Allegations that Hymen and Garlovsky were “personally involved and responsible” in the alleged constitutional violations, Tharp wrote, “are the kind of conclusory recitals courts routinely reject.”
Tharp also said Burnetti’s allegations regarding withheld wages don’t support a theory of retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“She attempts to manufacture a causal link through timing: Finn demoted her in December 2019, a month after she refused to sign the board’s offered settlement agreement to resolve her legal challenges,” Tharp wrote. “The missing link between Finn’s role in Burnetti’s wage discussions and her subsequent demotion is fatal to Burnetti’s claim against her.”
Finally, Tharp did allow Burnetti to continue pursuing damages under the Illinois Whistleblower Act, but only connected to those portions of her complaint covering 2019. He also gave her until June 2 to amend the claims he dismissed without prejudice.
Burnetti is represented in the case by attorneys Noelle C. Brennan and Amanda Burns, of the Noelle Brennan & Associates firm, of Chicago.
District 113 and the individual defendants are represented by attorneys William Pokorny and Caroline K. Kane, of Franczek P.C., of Chicago.