A group of parents have withdrawn a lawsuit against Skokie's Fairview School District, in which they had alleged the district is riddled with racism and accused the district's board and superintendent of being in league with a white supremacist group.
On Feb. 28, attorneys for both the parents and the school district told Cook County Judge Michael Mullen that they had agreed to dismiss the case. The judge signed off on that order on Feb. 29.
Under the stipulation filed in court, the plaintiffs indicated they had dropped the case, with prejudice, meaning they are forbidden from attempting to bring the same claims in a future legal action.
The stipulation of dismissal does not indicate why the parties had agreed to end the case.
The lawsuit was filed in early 2022 in Cook County Circuit Court by the group of parents, identified as Roxann Monic Salgado, Roy Jonas Conley Jr., Angela Sangha-Gadsden and Terence Zaire Gadsden, all of whom were identified as the parents of racial minority children in Skokie Fairview School District 72.
The lawsuit was filed against District 72 board members and superintendent Cindy Whittaker.
The complaint accused the District 72 school officials of fostering a "hostile learning environment for students of color," in part by not instituting sufficient anti-racist policies and programs. The parents later amended the lawsuit include claims accusing board members and the school superintendent of being racists themselves. The complaint asserted the school should pay because certain board members had affiliated with or been supported by two particular groups, Awake Illinois and Niles Township Accountability Coalition, which they alleged should be considered racist organizations.
The parents accused the school officials of taking part in a "protracted and deliberate campaign of racist harassment and anti-Black racism towards Black and brown students" in pursuit of a "white centric education [that] harms Black and brown families."
They further asserted the school didn't do enough to crack down on white students, who they alleged harbored racist attitudes and beliefs and had engaged in racist behaviors, allegedly including the use of racial slurs, statements in support of former President Donald Trump, and making derogatory comments about Martin Luther King Jr. in the presence of black students.
The plaintiffs claimed they had repeatedly asked District 72 to address such occurrences with "anti-racism" programs and training for staff and students, but have been rebuffed.
The complaint had also been amended to add state officials, including Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois State School Superintendent Carmen Ayala, as additional defendants. The complaint sought to win court orders requiring the state officials to force District 72 to comply with their demands and "enforce minimum equity standards" in the school district.
A judge dismissed the state defendants from the action.
In response to the lawsuit, District 72 had also sought to dismiss the claims, saying the plaintiffs were attempting to use the court as an inappropriate forum to address their concerns about curriculum, hiring decisions and the conduct of other students.
They argued the school district "finds all forms of racism and discrimination abhorrent." But they said the school district cannot be sued "for every offenseive comment made on school property by a student or a member of the public."
In other filings, District 72 blasted as "shockingly repugnant" the plaintiffs' "inflammatory" allegations labeling the school board and officials as "white supremacist" because one member of the board had been affiliated with politicial organizations the plaintiffs said should be perceived as such.
"Plaintiffs are attempting to use the court as a conduit to advocate for their own policy ideas, and, in turn, attack those with whom they disagree with politically," District 72 wrote in a court filing in early 2023.
They asserted the plaintiffs' "unfounded and baseless claims" had "no basis in reality."
While plaintiffs attempted to keep their lawsuit alive through 2023, the school district's lawyers said their continued attempts to amend their complaint or respond to the district's motions to dismiss fell short of establishing their claims that the school district's policies were racist, or that the school board or superintendent had engaged in or endorsed intentional discrimination against students at the school.
"It is black letter law that individual Board members have no legal authority and decisions by the Board can be made only by a majority vote at public board meetings, yet Plaintiffs fail to identify any specific official school board policy that has the force of law that they contend caused a constitutional violation. Nor have Plaintiffs identified any personal involvement of the superintendent—the only individual named in her official capacity—in any alleged violations of federal or constitutional rights. Plaintiffs’ complete failure to do so in what is now their fourth attempt to state a legally cognizable claim warrants dismissal with prejudice," the school district wrote in a brief filed in in December 2023 in support of their motion to dismiss.
Two months later, the parties agreed to dismiss with prejudice.
The parents were represented by attorney Sheryl Ring Weikal, of McHenry.
District 72 and its board members and superintendent were represented by attorneys Kevin P. McKeown and Jason T. Manning, of the firm of Hodges Loizzi Eisenhammer Rodick & Kohn, of Itasca.