School District Bans Dad Who Accused Administrators Of Racism

WINNETKA, IL — A Winnetka father accused the District 36 school board president and senior administrators of "blatant racism and discrimination" after he was banned from setting foot on district property without prior written approval.

District officials restricted the man's access to school property after the parent showed up for an unscheduled visit to administrative offices in April and "yelled, used profanity, disrupted operations and displayed aggressive and intimidating behaviors toward staff," according to a joint statement from Superintendent Trisha Kocanda and the board.

Isaac Velin, 33, who has since withdrawn his child from District 36 schools, said that he has been treated like a second-class citizen because he is Hispanic. Velin served in the U.S. Navy's Fleet Marine Force with Marine infantry from 2005 and 2011. During that time, he was deployed on three combat tours and received a Purple Heart, he said.

"The discrimination I have faced has been an incredibly emotional and embarrassing chapter in my life, one that I will never forget," Velin told Patch. "There have been dozens of microaggressions since I have lived in Winnetka that have made me feel unwelcome, such as being asked If I was waiting for someone or what I was doing, even though I was in my pajamas and slippers in front of my house or getting leered at by a person walking as if I was out of place. To ban a father for demanding equal treatment and competency in the protection of his 7-year-old baby girl is cruel and heartless."

According to both sides, the dispute relates to an allegation of possible misconduct by a school bus driver working for Cook-Illinois Corporation that was first reported in September 2018.

In a statement issued Tuesday, district officials said they followed proper protocol to investigate the bus driver and restrict the man's access to school property, citing an Oct. 1 determination letter from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights that found "insufficient evidence to conclude the District discriminated" against Velin and advice from the Winnetka Police Department. Despite the restrictions, administrators said they have granted each of Velin's requests to attend school board meetings.

"The Winnetka Public Schools has and will continue to respect all who enter our schools, and will not tolerate or condone any form of discrimination," district officials said in the joint statement.

The statement was issued Tuesday in response to a letter distributed by Velin over the weekend containing allegations that district officials concealed video of "creepy" behavior by the bus driver.

Velin said the administration "maliciously deflected any accountability and painted the overpaid CFO [Brad Goldstein] and Superintendent [Trisha Kocanda] as 'victims' and silenced me for standing up for my daughter while they engage in a racist coverup."

He went on to say Kocanda, 42, of Arlington Heights, "doesn't live in the community or pay taxes to the district but instead steals an unjust salary, hires only white administrators and treats people of color as second class citizens." (According to the district, Kocanda is paid nearly $314,000 a year and Goldstein receives more than $237,500 and in total annual compensation.)

According to Velin, he suspected the driver on his daughter's bus route of "grooming" his daughter and having physical contact with her. He said he contacted the bus company to request an investigation but never heard back. The school principal told him private bus drivers are treated as teachers and it would not be possible to prevent his daughter from having contact with a specific driver, he said.

"I told her that this was unacceptable and notified her that a middle-aged man should not have my daughter habitually summoned to stand directly next to him every day and that nothing about a 7-year-old girl could be interesting to a grown middle-aged man," Velin said.

District officials said they first learned of Velin's complaints in September 2018.

"This community member came to us with concerns that the driver on his child's bus route was overly friendly to the child and not friendly to the parent," according to the statement from Kocanda and the board. "No specific allegations, including physical contact, were made, nor was a specific date of any incident provided."

After keeping his daughter off the bus for several months, Velin said changes in schedules for him and his wife, who is also a veteran, required her to start taking the bus again in January. He said they gave their daughter "strict instructions to sit at the back of the bus and have no contact with the bus driver." Two days later, the parents received their first complaint about their daughter's behavior on the bus because she was not wearing a safety belt.

"I listened to the teacher and assured her this was going to be remedied and it was discussed with our daughter, who insisted no one wears their seatbelts on the bus and felt she was being singled out by this bus driver after our complaint to teach her a lesson," Velin said. He said school officials told him there were no other complaints that day, leading him to suspect the complaint was retaliation.

"This bus driver habitually summons my daughter to the front of the bus to have long, inappropriate conversations with her because she is interesting to a middle aged man but now lying down in her seat at the back of the bus is a problem? Did it anger the bus driver that she was told to have no contact with him and sit at the back of the bus, so he wanted to make an example of her and show her that he has authority?"

According to district officials, an internal review of video footage from the bus showed no evidence of misconduct by the driver. However, children were seen up and out of their seats while the bus was moving. Management of the bus company spoke to the driver about making sure students were properly seated and added a temporary aide.

"My complaint centered on the district deleting surveillance video where my daughter was habitually and routinely summoned to stand directly next to a creepy male bus driver while the district delayed and delayed and delayed video release and then claimed it had been deleted," Velin said. "No parent would be upset about a child simply standing on a bus but a parent would be upset when they were habitually ignored and treated as a second class citizen while incompetent, racist administrators continued to endanger their daughter through inaction, negligence and a cover up while video was deleted with malice."

Administrators said they offered Velin the chance to come to district offices to view available videos from September 2018 but he refused. He instead demanded staff send him electronic copies of the videos, "which required additional time for video-editing to ensure the privacy of other students."

Velin said he later followed up with Goldstein to inquire about the status of the investigation and videos. Goldstein told him he was unaware Velin still wanted the videos and directed him to the district's private attorney, who told him all but one recording had been deleted and the investigation had been closed.

"I was shocked and disgusted at the level of incompetence and lack of leadership," Velin said.

The details of what happened next are disputed. Both sides agree that Velin visited the district offices without an appointment on April 12, called Winnetka police, and that he ended up banned from district property.

Goldstein told an Education Department investigator he heard the superintendent's assistant ask Velin to return after making an appointment, according to the Office for Civil Rights report.

"He said at this point [Velin] was loud but not yelling, and according to [Goldstein], said 'f---' or 'f---ing' to refer to the District's handling of his request for videos of the bus. The CFO said he was concerned about [Velin's] loudness and that the situation could get out of hand. He entered the front desk area and asked [Velin] to leave," according to the report.

"I'm not leaving. I'll call the police," Velin reportedly responded. He acknowledged to investigators he was "speaking forcefully" but denied using profanity, the report said. Velin told investigators he called the police because he hoped they would write a citation to the bus driver for allowing his daughter to stand up on a moving bus and because "he wanted the police to investigate the District's cover-up and their treatment of him as a second-class citizen. [Velin] said he was most upset because the CFO smiled throughout the interaction with him."

In his letter to the community, Velin recalls Goldstein was acting "like a racist white man that knows he can get away with anything. I asked him, 'what the f--- are you smiling about' and he continues to smile while standing over me." After telling Goldstein he was "either corrupt or incompetent" and he would be reported to the school board, the administrator responded by saying "Fine, go ahead," Velin recalled. He said police explained there was nothing they could do and had no ability to confiscate district files or investigate the matter without more evidence.

When Winnetka police arrived, Velin told Patch he appreciated that officers were courteous and professional.

"I can honestly say that throughout this entire process I was surprised, the people who treated me with the most respect and listened were the officers in the Winnetka Police Department," he said. "I am very good at reading physical gestures and tone, something that meant life and death in combat, and the police definitely came across that nothing was personal and they did appear to be sympathetic to my story, even while I explained my predicament of not being able to provide evidence to the police department because of the district administration's obstruction."

After this incident, administrators sent Velin a "restricted access letter," according to district officials. In response, Velin filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, the ACLU and other organizations.

The letter Kocanda sent later the same day said Velin's conduct was "inappropriate, intimidating and verbally aggressive" in violation of board policy, according to the Office of Civil Rights report.

Velin told investigators he believes Kocanda sent the letter "because I'm a brown man [and Goldstein] doesn't like me because I'm Hispanic," the report said. When he was asked why he believed the fact he was of Mexican descent contributed to the restrictions, Velin explained, "It was an all-white office staff and they were looking at me like I'm a crazy person!"

Kocanda told investigators Velin's national origin was not a factor in her decision to restrict his access to district property, which she said she made after an investigation and in consultation with the school board.

Two other parents faced similar restrictions over the past two years, according to district records provided to federal investigators. In April 2018, a mom in the district was banned from school events for the rest of a school year after becoming "disruptive during a student choral concert," and another parent was banned from all district property without prior approval in January 2019 in connection with an arrest on charges of solicitation of child pornography. Both parents and their children are non-Hispanic whites, according to the report.

The Office of Civil Rights said Velin did not provide any evidence that white parents were treated more favorably.

"Additionally, OCR found no other evidence indicating that the Superintendent's decision to restrict the Complainant's presence on District property was based upon his national origin as opposed to the Superintendent's determination that his conduct on April 12, 2019, involved vulgar or obscene language and was disruptive to school activities."

Velin admitted the "F-word" is a "healthy part" of his vocabulary, which he said was a result of years in combat. But denied being threatening as he sat in the district office.

"There is a perverse idea that labels any person of color, even a sitting one like me, who speaks in a non-submissive tone as being threatening and dangerous, while a white person can scream and gesture with impunity," Velin told Patch. "My dealings with the board have made it clear that the school board president [Dawn Livingston] is too close to the hired superintendent and it seems cares more about being a figurehead and preserving an image and title than being a leader who bravely protects the interests of residents like myself. People often wonder what drives veterans to commit suicide and treatment like this only drives to further isolate people and make them wonder what sacrifice means when people only care when it's fashionable."

Read more:

• Oct. 1, 2019, determination letter from the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education
• Nov. 16, 2019, letter to the Winnetka community from Isaac Velin