Activist Teacher Who Sued Activist Parent Appeals Judge's Fee Award

SKOKIE, IL — A local educator and anti-racism advocacy group, ordered to pay over $38,000 in attorney's fees following the dismissal of their defamation suit against an activist parent, have raised $44,000 through an online fundraiser as they appeal the decision.

Jasmine Sebaggala is a Skokie parent and the assistant principal of Lincolnwood Elementary School in Evanston/Skokie School District 65.

Sebaggala, who is Black, is a co-founder of the group Abolition Coalition, started in 2020 by a group of five non-white mothers who have advocated for increased diversity in Niles Township and seeks to "abolish the anti-Blackness and white supremacy" that they say saturates society.

Helen Levinson, also a Skokie parent, founded the Niles Township Accountability Coalition in 2020, which subsequently merged with Awake Illinois, the conservative nonprofit where Levinson is now vice-president.

Levinson, a Jordanian Arab immigrant, is also the founder of the Cook County chapter of Moms for Liberty and a tech industry sales executive.

In September 2021, Sebaggala and her coalition filed a lawsuit in Cook County court accusing Levinson and her coalition of defaming her, profiting off her likeness and interfering with her career prospects. In the summer of 2021, Sebaggala was a teacher at Willard Elementary School. She was later promoted to assistant principal of Lincolnwood Elementary.

"Helen and people like her will continue to try to attack teachers, which would directly impact students because teachers like me that want to advocate for marginalized students are not allowed to do so or fear doing so," Sebaggala said, amid the fundraising campaign to cover the cost of the attorney's fees and court costs she has been ordered to pay. "That will directly impact the service that kids are receiving and the protections that many of them have because of educators that are willing to do all they can to make sure that they get educated."

Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Kubasiak dismissed Sebaggala's first complaint in December 2021, but her attorney filed an amended version in December 2022, replacing the count of tortious interference with one alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Sebaggala's amended complaint alleges that Levinson made various false and defamatory statements about her on social media. The lawsuit also focuses on a 14-page letter that Levinson sent to District 65 administrators in to complain about their employee's conduct.

The August 2021 letter accused Sebaggala and her coalition of "creating a mindset of segregation and anti-white rhetoric, hate, and a narrative of racism that does not exist in our community." Levinson noted that her school district, Fairview School District 72, contains many immigrants, that she herself is a minority as a Christian Arab and that her husband is Jewish and the relative of victims of the Holocaust.

Sebaggala's lawsuit describes Levinson as a "white supremacist and alt-right provocateur who fancies herself to be Skokie, Illinois' version of Alex Jones," the conspiracy theorist radio host who was ordered to pay more than $1 billion over his remarks regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

In addition to the allegation of defamation, Sebaggala alleges that Levinson's conduct was "extreme, outrageous, and beyond the bounds of human decency" by falsely accusing Sebaggala of "inventing racist incidents" even though she knew they were real.

"Levinson did so purely to improve her standing in the eyes of her followers and to continue to spread her message of white supremacy," the complaint alleged.

The suit also alleges Levinson violated the Illinois Right to Publicity Act, which forbids the unauthorized use of a person's identity for commercial purposes. It suggests that Levinson and the Niles Township Accountability Coalition are engaged in a "purely commercial, money-making purpose," with Levinson making false statements about people "as the product she is selling to her consumers."

Kubasiak dismissed all three counts of the second complaint from Sebaggala and the Abolition Coalition and forbade them from filing a new version last May.

In both dismissal orders, the judge cited the Citizen Participation Act, the Illinois version of anti-SLAPP legislation — laws that are aimed at protecting First Amendment rights against frivolous retaliatory litigation, abbreviated as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

According to Kubasiak, Levinson's letter to District 65 officials was an act intended to "procure favorable government action, result, or outcome," and was protected under the constitutional right to petition the government.

But even if the anti-SLAPP law did not apply to Sebaggala's suit, the judge said all three of its causes of action would also still fail.

"Moreover, the allegations of [Sebaggala's amended complaint] describing what is set forth in Levinson’s letter appear to take words out of context and misconstrue the intent behind what is set forth in the letter," Kubasiak said.

"Considering the arguments previously made by [Levinson and her coalition] in support of their initial Motion to Dismiss, and considering the 'new' allegations [Sebaggala and her coalition] make in the [amended complaint], the court finds that [they] have failed to establish a cause of action for defamation under Illinois law."

As for the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, the judge found that Sebaggala and her coalition had not alleged Levinson and her coalition ever intended to inflict "severe emotion distress" and that failed to allege any specific facts to support the allegation that Sebaggala had "suffered extreme emotional distress as a result of [Levinson's] conduct, including without limitation, depression, anxiety, loss of function and humiliation."

And the suggestion that Levinson and the Niles Township Accountability Coalition appropriated Sebaggala's right to publicity, the judge responded by noting that Sebaggala had never produced any evidence that Levinson had used her identity for fundraising and "making the above allegations with no factual support is insufficient."

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When someone wins a motion to dismiss a lawsuit under Citizen Participation Act, the Illinois anti-SLAPP law, courts are required to grant them reasonable attorney's fees.

On Dec. 14, Kubasiak awarded Levinson's attorneys $38,159.28 in fees and costs, though he denied their request for additional cash and sanctions, and gave Abolition Coalition and Sebaggala 21 days to come up with the money.

An online fundraiser established on Sebaggala's behalf by a fellow member of the Abolition Coalition was launched Dec. 13 and has raised more than $44,000, allowing the money to be set aside in escrow during appeal.

Supporters of Sebaggala say that the ruling sets a dangerous precedent that teachers are public figures. At a remote press conference in December, they described Sebaggala's abortive defamation lawsuit as part of a broader fight against far-right extremism.

Cassie Creswell, the leader of the nonprofit Illinois Families for Public Schools, said "right-wing extremists have been waging a battle against equitable, inclusive public schools" in the Chicago suburbs.

Creswell said organizing that began in opposition to COVID-19 mitigation policies "devolved" into an "anti-equality, anti-democracy agenda [that] has included everything from attempts to ban books, some successful, to harass educators who support the civil rights of LGBTQ+ students and students of color, to [opposing] anti-racist professional development for staff.

"In some cases, harassment has escalated into threats of physical violence or, in the case of UpRising Bakery, actual violence, an incident incited by these same right-wing extremists," Cresswell said.

"This activity isn't just homegrown in the collar counties. It's connected to major nationwide organizations, including Moms for Liberty, the Leadership Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and their associated organizations, the Heritage Action, and now Steven Miller, the former Trump adviser's America First Legal," she said, speaking in support of Sebaggala at the December news conference. "The funding for these organizations is mostly dark money. It's difficult to trace back to its origin, but we know that billionaires like the Koch brothers and Richard Uihlein are underwriting it here, as they are elsewhere around the country."

Levinson's attorney, Sorin Leahu, was joined as co-counsel by America First Legal, the conservative nonprofit founded by former Trump White House advisor Steven Miller.

Nicholas Barry, the group's senior counsel, said in a statement after the dismissal order that the group was proud to have participated and looked forward to continuing to advocate on behalf of parental rights.

"We each have a voice, and we should be able to speak freely without the threat of frivolous litigation chilling our speech," Barry said. "Members of the bar have a special obligation to ensure that they do not use the legal system to threaten and intimidate Americans from exercising their rights."

Court records indicate Sebaggala has filed appeals to both the judge's dismissal order and the award of attorney fees. According to the organizers of her online fundraiser, donors will have the option of getting their money back if the appeal is successful.

"This is a cultural war that we are experiencing here, and we have heard about it in Texas, we've heard about it in Florida, but now here it is in our own front yard, not our backyard, but in our front yard, right here in the state of Illinois," said Michael Nabors, president of the Evanston-North Shore Branch of the NAACP and senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Evanston.

"And so it becomes very important for us to understand, and to know, that we have to rally behind this madness, because it is a madness that is focused on separation instead of unity," he said. "It focuses on hatred instead of mutual cooperation and working together, and it also focuses on race in the most deliberate and negative way."