Aku v. Chi. Bd. of Educ.

290 F. Supp. 3d 852
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 14, 2017
Docket17–cv–1226
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 290 F. Supp. 3d 852 (Aku v. Chi. Bd. of Educ.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aku v. Chi. Bd. of Educ., 290 F. Supp. 3d 852 (illinoised 2017).

Opinion

John Z. Lee, United States District Judge

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Lu Aku ("Aku") filed this pro se lawsuit against his former employer, the Board of Education of the City of Chicago ("the Board"), D'Andre Weaver ("Weaver"), the principal at the school where Aku taught until 2014, and thirteen other defendants ("Non-Board Defendants"). Aku claims that the Board discriminated against him based on his age, sex, color, race, national origin, and disability in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, the Americans with Disabilities Act *856("ADA"), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), and retaliated against him for asserting his rights under those acts. Compl. ¶¶ 9, 10, 12(i), ECF No. 1. Aku further claims that the Non-Board Defendants-a broad range of parties that includes, among others, the Chicago Teachers Union, Aku's former medical provider and former attorneys, two third-party claims administrators for the Board, and the Illinois Human Rights Commission-conspired with and aided and abetted the Board in discriminating and retaliating against him, in violation of Title VII and the ADA. Id. ¶¶ 12(j), 13(h). The Board1 moves to dismiss the complaint in part, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure ("Rule") 12(b)(6), ECF No. 76; twelve of the Non-Board Defendants2 move, in nine separate motions, to dismiss the complaint as to each of them pursuant to both Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), ECF Nos. 10, 12, 22, 38, 46, 52, 64, 89, and 127. For the reasons given below, the Court grants in part and denies in part the Board's motion and grants each of the Non-Board Defendants' motions in full.

Factual Background 3

Aku, an African-American man born in 1967, began teaching science at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy ("Brooks"), a public school in Chicago, on August 27, 2007. Compl., Ex. Illinois Department of Human Rights ("IDHR") and EEOC Charge # 15W0707.03 ("Charge 03") at 1.

Aku experienced a number of challenges during the 2013-14 school year. In August 2013, Weaver, Brooks's Principal, informed Aku that Aku would not teach Physics for 2013-14, as expected, but instead he would teach Biology and Environmental Science. Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss, Ex. 4, Bullying Grievance ¶¶ 2, 6, 7, 9, ECF No. 96 ("Bullying Grievance"). Weaver then provided Aku with insufficient textbooks for his classes and scheduled Aku to teach during the science department's common planning time. Id. ¶ 9. Aku *857was also evaluated on a different schedule from the rest of Brooks's faculty, with a formal evaluation in fall 2013 and an informal evaluation in the spring; the other teachers had the reverse schedule, with their informal evaluation first. Id. ¶ 10; see Compl. ¶ 13. Furthermore, Weaver re-assigned Aku's tutoring responsibilities for Biology and Environmental Science, for which Aku had previously received overtime pay, to other teachers who were not teaching those subject areas. Bullying Grievance ¶¶ 28-30. On April 4, 2014, Weaver confronted Aku about a decision he had made to disqualify some Environmental Science students from taking a chapter test. Id. ¶ 27. In that conversation, Weaver told Aku that he should consider leaving the field of teaching. Id. ¶ 27; Compl. Ex. IDHR and EEOC Charge # 15W0807.07 ("Charge 07") at 2.

On April 30, 2014, Aku reported to a Chicago Public Schools Employment Compliance Administrator that the school administration had held a meeting in November 2013 for only African-American teachers, where Weaver had assured the teachers that their jobs were not in danger. Compl. ¶ 16, Charge 07 at 4; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 1, ECF No. 136. Aku received a negative teaching evaluation from Assistant Principal Shannae Jackson the following month. Charge 07 at 3. Weaver notified Aku in late June 2014 that he did not have a position at Brooks for the 2014-15 school year, Compl. ¶ 12(a), and that he needed math and science endorsements to teach in Brooks's new Science, Technology, Engineering & Math ("STEM") department. See Bullying Grievance ¶ 41; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 5. Aku later learned that a computer endorsement could substitute for a missing math or science endorsement. Bullying Grievance ¶ 41.

While Weaver told Aku about the new department's requirements on the same day that he notified Aku that he did not have a position, Weaver had notified other teachers of the new requirement earlier, allowing them to timely acquire their math endorsements. Bullying Grievance ¶ 41. According to Aku, Weaver had notified non-African-American science and math teachers of the change in their department and job requirements for 2014-15, before notifying the African-American teachers. Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 9. According to Aku, Weaver then terminated African-American teachers who lacked those endorsements, only to later staff the department with underqualified white teachers. See id. ¶¶ 17, 18.

Around this time, in June 2014, Aku filed his first claim for workers' compensation, related to an ankle injury incurred at Brooks in October 2013. Compl. ¶ 13; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 2; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss at 4. The ankle injury caused a medial talar dome lesion, which is in effect "a slow-forming, increasingly painful scar inside his ankle." Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss at 7.

After he was dismissed from Brooks, Aku also began filing IDHR complaints.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
290 F. Supp. 3d 852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aku-v-chi-bd-of-educ-illinoised-2017.