'White Supremacist' School Board Allegations Should Be Dismissed: District 72 Attorney

SKOKIE, IL — Two sets of parents who accuse the superintendent and board of Fairview School District 72 of racism are trying to use the court system to attack their political opponents and advocate for their own policy ideas, according to the district's attorney.

The pair of Fairview South Elementary School parents — Roxann Salgado and Roy Conley, along with Angela Sangha-Gadsden and Terence Gadsden — initially filed suit in January 2022. Since then, they have twice amended the complaint to add allegations.

In the second amended complaint, filed in December 2022, they allege that Superintendent Cindy Whittaker and the seven members of the board "engaged in a protracted and deliberate campaign of racist harassment," and that officials at the one-school, K-8 district have decided "to pursue a white-centric education."

The results of a five-phase equity audit conducted by the district "reveal a segregated school system with different levels of opportunity for white and nonwhite students." While white people make up a minority of the 722 students in the district, they comprise over 90 percent of the teaching staff.

The audit also found that district officials were aware of "students being recruited for neo-Nazi groups" on school grounds but took no action, according to the complaint submitted by Sheryl Weikal, the parents' attorney.

The 109-page equity audit report produced by the district in the fall of 2021 includes a single mention of such recruitment. A family member who participated in focus groups reportedly said: "Also, heard about students being recruited for neo-Nazi groups and have not heard anything about it and when schools are silent about race and white supremacy, it gives opportunity to galvanize."

The parents — who identify as either Black, Chicana and Asian Indian — hope to certify a class action consisting "all persons of color and/or nonwhite persons" who either attended or had a child enrolled in District 72 since 2019.

The complaint allege that the district violated the constitution by one or more of the following: allowing an environment hostile to nonwhite students; allowing white parents to speak before nonwhite parents; teaching mostly white authors and materials; refusing to teach Black History Month; refusing to ban racial slurs; responding to complaints from parents by asking a white friend to “get control of them"; refusing to address students' racism and denying the existence of racism in the district.

Since the first version of their complaint was filed, school officials have been retaliating against the plaintiffs' children, according to the third version, which alleges that administrators disciplined two of the students as a result of the litigation after they stood up against bullying and reported foul language by another child.

An earlier version of the complaint named Gov. J.B. Pritzker and then-State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala as defendants, but Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Mullen dismissed the claims against them with prejudice — meaning they cannot be filed anew.

The latest version of the complaint also accuses the political nonprofit Awake Illinois of being a white supremacist organization and alleges that District 72 board member Jaqueline Bujdei was hand-selected to run for office by the group's founder.

Bujdei was elected in April 2021 with 354 votes. Salgado, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, also ran for a board seat in that same election, coming in fifth place and 85 votes short.

Last month, attorneys for the school district asked Mullen to toss out the suit and, in a separate motion, to strike the complaint's preliminary statement alleging school administrators are pursuing the "unlawful agenda" of Awake Illinois, as well as a 12-paragraph passage about the group and its alleged influence on district officials.

The parents' "unfounded, repulsive, targeted attacks' on Board Member Bujdei, and by allegation and insinuation each of the other School Defendants, are highly prejudicial," according to Kevin McKeown, the school's attorney.

"The specter of these unfounded and baseless allegations of racism and white supremacy against school officials, like Bujdei, who serve the public and protect their students cannot be allowed to linger in the public square, damaging their reputation," McKeown said in the motion to strike the second amended complaint.

In the district's motion to dismiss the suit, McKeown said the parents have failed to allege facts to state a claim that the district has a policy of intentionally discriminating against students of color or that the superintendent or any board member acted with discriminatory intent and violated their constitutional rights.

"Indeed, Plaintiffs assert allegations ranging from an unspecified parent cutting in line at a school board meeting, to the posting of an uplifting sign about being 'the nice kid' to the use of a racial slur by a couple [of] unidentified students to unspecified comments made by parents during public comment at a school board meeting to unidentified 'white supremacists' speaking before people of color during public comment at unspecified school board meetings," McKeown said, "all to support their wholly conclusory contention that the School Defendants created a hostile learning environment for students of color and denied Plaintiffs the same level of access to teachers and administrators that were provided to White parents."

The plaintiff's attorneys have also failed — in their third bite at the apple — to make specific allegations against the defendants and failed to offer any facts to suggest a connection between alleged isolated incidents of racism and official district policy, according to the motion.

"This is not to diminish Plaintiffs’ concerns about inappropriate offensive behavior by students and members of the public," McKeown said. "The Board finds all forms of racism and discrimination abhorrent and will not tolerate it in its schools, yet it cannot be legally responsible under the Constitution for every offensive comment made on school property by a student or a member of the public, especially when there is no causal nexus between such comments and a policy or custom of the Board that has the force of law and deprived a specific constitutional right."

According the district, the parents lawsuit concerns ideological and policy differences and not a legal cause of action. And the allegations against a single board member fail to take into account the fact that board members have no individual authority and can only act through majority vote at public hearings.

"[I]t has become abundantly clear based on the newest allegations that 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. Plaintiffs now allege that one Board member is a 'white supremacist' solely due to her alleged membership in a non-party, nonprofit organization known as 'Awake Illinois,'" McKeown said.

"These allegations are not only false and repulsive, but factually unsupported and entirely irrelevant to the legal issues at hand," the attorney argued, "given that there is zero causal nexus between alleged membership in an outside organization and an official policy or custom of the Board that has the force of law and deprived a constitutional right."

Records show Weikal has until Thursday to respond to the district's motions on behalf of the two couples, and the school district's attorneys may file a reply to that before Feb. 23.

Earlier: Skokie School Ignores Racial Slurs, Prioritizes White Kids, Lawsuit Says