York High Teacher Violated Social Media Policy: Principal

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst School District 205 on Tuesday quit in its effort to keep secret a principal's letter disciplining a teacher over a social media post.

The March 3 letter was from then-York High School Principal Shahe Bagdasarian to English teacher Kelly DeLoriea.

In his letter, the principal noted DeLoriea's social media post was in response to a parent's post stating that his child was in her class.

The parent was Tom Chavez, a local conservative activist critical of DeLoriea. At the time, he was a school board candidate.

"In your social media post, you shared the student's personal information regarding classes he attended at York High School," Bagdasarian said. "While we understood you were engaged in a larger exchange over social media regarding a parent, student information was disclosed, and student information should never be brought into those public conversations."

DeLoriea, the principal said, violated the school board's policies on professionalism and use of social media.

Bagdasarian said DeLoriea's post did not align with the district's guiding principles and goals.

The principal said he was suspending DeLoriea for one day without pay, "due to similar situations in the past" and "the severity of this decision." He did not detail the previous instances.

He further warned that if DeLoriea failed to meet expectations, she would face more disciplinary action.

Asked for comment Tuesday, DeLoriea responded through the local teachers union president, Dan Hall.

“Our union feels the actions taken by the board against Ms. DeLoriea were unfair and unwarranted," Hall said in an email. "Accordingly, we have filed an appeal and will continue to support her as a highly-rated, veteran educator. We hope the board will continue to work with us to reach a fair and mutually agreeable solution.”

In August, Patch filed a public records request for the union complaint, but the district denied it. The district also declined to release the letter from the principal.

In October, Patch requested the attorney general's office review the district's denial of the letter. That led to the response from the district's lawyer, Todd Faulkner of the Chicago-based Franczek law firm, which represents many school districts.

In his letter Tuesday, Faulkner said the district asserts that it could keep the letter secret under an exception to the state's open records law.

That exception pertains to the adjudication of employee disciplinary cases, but does not extend to the "final outcome." However, with the principal's letter, he issued discipline, which could be interpreted as a final outcome.

In releasing the letter, Faulkner said the district was not waiving its position or setting a precedent.

Rather, he said, the district did not want to spend more time or money on the dispute.

While Faulkner said the district was not setting a precedent, it appeared it had already done so in January 2022.

Then, upon Patch's request, the district released a principal's letter to a substitute teacher. The substitute was reprimanded for making students do pushups for wearing their masks improperly.

On Tuesday, Patch filed a public records request with the district to see how much money it spent on the records dispute.

In August, the school board voted unanimously to issue DeLoriea a "notice of remedy," which is a public reprimand.

For nearly an hour at the board meeting, DeLoriea's supporters spoke in her defense. They argued DeLoriea only wrote things about Chavez's child that he had said on social media.

They also contended DeLoriea was exercising her First Amendment rights.

However, Chavez said the issue had nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with state and federal privacy laws and the board's own policies, which protect student information.

Last winter, DeLoriea posted a comment on the Facebook page titled "Respect Our Students and Educators D205," or ROSE, which has more than 600 members.

She said she previously stated on the page that Chavez's student was never enrolled in her American Studies class. She then said she checked the record and clarified that Chavez's child was in her Advanced Placement Language class.

"No one from the Chavez family or the school communicated with me about a schedule change, mentioned that they had a negative impression or made me aware of any problem relevant to AP Lang," DeLoriea wrote.

She added she taught Chavez's older student for a full year without any issues.

"All of the accusations that have been leveled by Mr. Chavez over email or publicly on the (Elmhurst Parents for Integrity in Curriculum) website, conservative talk radio, at board meetings, or in the Patch have focused exclusively on American Studies, so it was completely not on my radar that his student had an issue with AP (Language)," DeLoriea said.

Last April, Chavez, who started the Elmhurst Parents for Integrity group, lost in the school board election.

Chavez became prominent locally in 2021 when he alleged at school board meetings that the district taught "critical race theory," though he provided no evidence the actual theory was in the district's lessons. His statements reflected those of conservatives at school board meetings around the country.

Editor's note: The original version of this story said the comment from the teachers union came from Rachel Esposito, a statewide Illinois Federation of Teachers union official. It was actually a comment from Dan Hall, the local union president.