Settlement Reached in Oak Park Teacher's Defamation Lawsuit

OAK PARK, I — Board members of the Oak Park-River Forest High School approved a settlement with Danielle Dobias, a former teacher who filed defamation and discrimination lawsuits against the school and some employees. The settlement agreement was unanimously approved by the board on April 27, according to Chicago Tribune. Dobias has since requested that courts dismiss both lawsuits.

Dobias initially filed a state defamation lawsuit and a federal discrimination lawsuit against Oak Park-River Forest High School, athletic director John Steltzer and teacher Tom Tarrant in 2015, claiming she had been a victim of sexual and retaliatory discrimination starting in 2012. Dobias claimed she had been stalked and harassed by Tarrant and that the school did nothing to discipline this behavior.

School officials terminated Dobias in December 2016, but as part of the settlement agreement, her departure will now be listed as "voluntary resignation," Chicago Tribune said. Dobias's settlement also includes an initial lump sum payment of $75,000 ($25,000 in back wages) and a second lump sump payment of $275,000. $133,617.21 of that amount will paid to her attorneys and the remaining $141,382.79 will be directly paid to Dobias.

>>Image credit: By Photo by Kmf164 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons