Skokie School District Ignores Racial Slurs, Prioritizes White Students, Lawsuit Alleges

SKOKIE, IL — Four parents of Fairview South Elementary School students allege that district officials have deliberately created a hostile learning environment for nonwhite students, refused to address racism among students and prioritized white parents, students and staff.

The pair of parents — Roxann Salgado and Roy Conley, as well as Angela Sangha-Gadsden and Terence Gadsden — made the allegations in a proposed class action lawsuit filed earlier this month in Cook County court. According to the suit, Conley and Gadsen are Black, Salgado is Latina and Sangha-Gadsden is Indian. Each couple has two children enrolled in the one-school district.

The four-count complaint alleges that District 72 violated federal civil rights law by failing to provide equal access to the same quality of education for students regardless of race, that the district unconstitutionally deprived the parents of public school education by providing inferior education to nonwhite students due to racial harassment — and that it violated both the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment right to equal protection and the Illinois Constitution's right to public education.

According to the parents' suit, district officials aim to prioritize the comfort of white students and deny parents of nonwhite students the same access to teachers and administrators.

The allegations in the complaint date back to April 2019, when Gadsen and Sangha-Gadsen met with Whittaker and told her they were concerned that students and faculty were not being provided anti-racism training.

Then, during 2020 and 2021, white students in the district repeatedly harassed their children and other nonwhite students, with one student repeatedly telling their daughter her "skin is the color of poop" in the presence of district employees and teachers, who took no action at the time, according to the complaint.

The parents' lawsuit alleges that white children repeatedly used racial slurs, including the n-word, to refer to nonwhite students.

It describes an incident in the fall of 2020 in which a white student told Black students that "when Donald Trump won reelection, he would remove all Black people from the country," and another in the spring of 2021 where a different white student started a sing-along during lunch that substituted the n-word for various words. The suit claims district officials took no action in response to either event.

According to the complaint, Salgado and Conley met with school board members to discuss the district's response to repeated racial slurs by students.

In response, an unspecified school board member contacted a white friend of the parents and asked her to "get control" of them "because they were 'causing trouble,'" it said. "[Board members] did this pursuant to their standard practices and policies of prioritizing white parents and students over students of color."

The suit also accuses the school board of favoritism toward white parents at meetings.

At the district's Aug. 18, 2021, meeting, white parents cut in line, and, when Sangha-Gadsen attempted to comment, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Feyerer tried to remove her and her children from the room, according to the suit, which described the meeting as typical.

"In fact," it said, "[board members] have provided more speaking time to white supremacists at Board meetings than to people of color, who are consistently and repeatedly required to speak after white people."

In addition to Fairview School District 72 Superintendent Cindy Whittaker and the seven members of District 72 school board, the complaint names as defendants Gov. J.B. Pritzker and State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala.

Should its class action status be approved by a judge, the parents' complaint looks to establish two classes for the purposes of the lawsuit.

One would consist of all nonwhite parents of District 72 students who have lived in the district for at least six months since January 2019. The other would be made up of all nonwhite students who spent more than six months at District 72 schools while living in the district.

The 16-page complaint also alleges that the district has "willfully refused" to teach Black History Month, Hispanic/Latinx History Month or Asian History Month, that it invited police officers into the school without informing parents first and that it has failed to teach material to students written by nonwhite authors.

The complaint said the District 72 teaching staff is more than 90 percent white, suggesting that is an indication that white candidates are prioritized for jobs as a matter of policy. According to district data cited in the suit, white students make up about 49 percent of the student body. Fairview is about 32 percent Asian, 13 percent Hispanic and 2 percent Black.

"In sum, [board members] have fostered an environment which refuses to acknowledge racism even exists, even as students of color are subjected to increasing levels of racist harassment from white students," according to the parents.

Three out of the suit's four counts — all but the one alleging an "unconstitutional taking" of the parents' property interest in public schooling — contain identical lists of accusations that district officials violated the parents' rights through "one or more of the following acts and/or omissions" listed below:

a. Creating, allowing, and fostering an environment hostile to nonwhite students;
b. Allowing and/or requiring white parents to speak before nonwhite parents;
c. Teaching only and/or mostly white authors and materials;
d. Refusing to teach Black History Month;
e. Refusing to ban racial slurs;
f. Responding to complaints from Plaintiffs by asking a white friend to “control” them;
g. Refusing to address racism by students;
h. Falsely denying the existence of racism in District 72;
i. Other acts and/or omissions as set forth herein

Whittaker, the District 72 superintendent and one of the defendants in the suit, said the district takes allegations such as those contained in the parents' complaint very seriously.

"While we cannot offer details on pending litigation, we remain steadfast in our commitment to a safe physical and emotional school environment that advances learning and promotes respect for all," the superintendent said in an email.

"Our District takes our commitment to diversity and inclusion very seriously and values training in cultural awareness and racial sensitivity. We participate in a variety of equity and diversity training programs on an ongoing basis," Whittaker said. "Most recently, our Board members, administrators, faculty, and staff have begun Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) training, which began in 2019 and is ongoing. As indicated in the District’s 2019-2023 Strategic Plan, Diversity and Inclusivity is a prominent area of focus for the District’s ongoing growth and improvement."

Patch asked the superintendent how many students had been disciplined for use of racial slurs at school since 2020.

"[W]e do not release details of individual student disciplinary matters. However, the District takes incidents of alleged racial slurs very seriously and carefully investigates each incident that becomes known to us," Whittaker said. "Although there have been very few reports of racial slurs in our school, even one slur is unacceptable. Each incident was investigated and each student disciplined appropriately. We remain adamant that such language has no place in our school and learning environment. "

Patch also requested comment from District 72 board members. Any response received will be added here.