Chess Coach Expelled by CTU After Leading Englewood School to National Championship

CHICAGO, IL - A chess coach who led an Englewood girls team to a national championship has been expelled from the Chicago Teachers Union for coaching the team instead of taking part in the union’s one-day walkout in April, according to a CBS 2 report.

“It’s all a matter of the principles we take in our lives,” said Joseph Ocol, the chess coach at Earle STEM Elementary School, noting that there’s a chance he could lose his job.

The chess team Ocol coached won a national championship just days after CTU members walked out in protest of a perceived lack of funding from state and local governments. Ocol crossed the picket line on Friday, April 1 to coach the team.

In a statement to CBS, the Union noted that members are “well aware of what happens to strike breakers” and are “informed by their own peers of the process for both suspension and reinstatement.”

A statement from CPS praised Ocol.

“This is exactly the kind of professionalism that the Chicago Teachers Union should be holding up as a shining example of what it means to be committed to students. Instead, the opposite happened – and he was unjustly punished for his dedication to the people who matter most – his students.”

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