Kilpatrick v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago

2022 IL App (1st) 220002-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 30, 2022
Docket1-22-0002
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2022 IL App (1st) 220002-U (Kilpatrick v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kilpatrick v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago, 2022 IL App (1st) 220002-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

2022 IL App (1st) 220002-U

THIRD DIVISION November 30, 2022

No. 1-22-0002

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). _____________________________________________________________________________

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________ ANDRE KILPATRICK, ) Appeal from ) the Circuit Court Plaintiff-Appellant, ) of Cook County ) v. ) 20-L-602 ) BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO, ) Honorable d/b/a CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ) Margaret Ann Brennan and ) Mary Colleen Roberts, Defendant-Appellee. ) Judges Presiding

PRESIDING JUSTICE McBRIDE delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Gordon and Burke concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint affirmed where collateral estoppel barred him from relitigating issue that was resolved against him in a prior proceeding.

¶2 In both 2014 and 2017, plaintiff, Andre Kilpatrick, applied for employment with Chicago

Public Schools (CPS) or a CPS-operated charter school. Plaintiff was briefly employed in 2014

before he was discharged following the results of a mandatory criminal background check which

showed two violent felony convictions. After his discharge, plaintiff filed an action under the

Illinois Human Rights Act, arguing that he was discharged—not based on those convictions—but

instead based on an arrest that was also included on his background check, in violation of the No. 1-22-0002

Illinois Human Rights Act (Act) (775 ILCS 5/1-101, et seq. (West 2014)). 775 ILCS 5/2-103(A)

(West 2014) (prohibiting discrimination based upon an individual’s arrest record, or upon criminal

history record information ordered expunged, sealed or impounded). While that proceeding was

ongoing, plaintiff applied again for employment with CPS in 2017. Plaintiff’s application was

denied, and plaintiff filed another claim under the Act, again alleging that the employment decision

was based on his arrest record and not his convictions. After plaintiff’s initial action was dismissed

for lack of substantial evidence, this court affirmed the dismissal, finding no evidence that the

school relied on his arrest rather than his convictions in its decision to discharge him. Kilpatrick v.

Human Rights Commission, 2020 IL App (1st) 190879-U. Thereafter, the court dismissed

plaintiff’s second discrimination claim, concluding that the claim was barred by res judicata and

collateral estoppel. It is this dismissal from which plaintiff now appeals.

¶3 The facts underlying the prior appeal showed that in 2014, plaintiff applied for a teaching

position at Urban Prep Academies (Urban Prep), a charter school operated by CPS. Plaintiff was

hired for the position and was employed as a teacher at Urban Prep from July 30, 2014, to

September 30, 2014, when he was discharged after CPS ran a mandatory criminal background

check. Witnesses who testified on behalf of Urban Prep presented evidence that all background

checks were performed through CPS, and that plaintiff’s background check revealed that he had

convictions for two counts of resisting a peace officer and one count of aggravated battery of a

peace officer, for which he served jail time. A compliance officer for CPS informed Urban Prep

that plaintiff was placed on the “do not hire” list.

¶4 There was also evidence that CPS used a list of enumerated offenses to disqualify

individuals seeking employment. Plaintiff believed that Urban Prep’s decision to discharge him

was based on his arrest record in violation of the Act (775 ILCS 5/2-103(A) (West 2014)), because

2 No. 1-22-0002

his arrest was for an offense on the enumerated offenses list, while his convictions were not.

Plaintiff testified that he was shown the background check at the time he was discharged, and that

the background check included both his convictions and arrests, including an arrest for aggravated

sexual assault.

¶5 Witnesses for Urban Prep, however, testified that employment decisions were made on a

case-by-case basis depending on the nature of the offense. Although plaintiff’s convictions were

not included on the list, witnesses for Urban Prep testified that the list was not exhaustive and

Urban Prep had discretion to make an employment decision based on other convictions that were

not included on the list. Those witnesses indicated that the decision to discharge plaintiff was based

on the nature of his convictions, “which were violent convictions and for which jail time was

served.”

¶6 The investigator recommended that the Illinois Department of Human Rights (Department)

find a lack of substantial evidence regarding plaintiff’s claim. The investigator found that plaintiff

was discharged because he failed the mandatory background check, which came back with “violent

felony convictions,” and that there was no evidence that Urban Prep discharged plaintiff because

of his arrest record. The Department accepted the investigator’s recommendation, and dismissed

plaintiff’s charge.

¶7 Plaintiff filed a request for review with the Illinois Human Rights Commission

(Commission), and in March 2019, the Commission sustained the Department’s dismissal of

plaintiff’s charge for lack of substantial evidence. The Commission found that Urban Prep

articulated a non-discriminatory reason for its actions, namely that plaintiff failed a mandatory

criminal background check, and there was no evidence of pretext. Plaintiff provided no evidence

that Urban Prep made its decision in bad faith, and no evidence of any comments regarding

3 No. 1-22-0002

plaintiff’s arrest record or any of the underlying allegations for which plaintiff was arrested.

Finding plaintiff presented no additional evidence that would warrant a reversal of the

Department's original determination, the Commission sustained the Department’s dismissal of the

charge. On April 30, 2019, plaintiff filed a petition for administrative review of the Commission’s

decision with this court.

¶8 This court affirmed the Commission’s decision, noting that plaintiff provided no direct

evidence of discrimination, and that Urban Prep articulated a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason

for petitioner’s discharge—namely discharge based on his criminal convictions, which was not

prohibited by the Act. Kilpatrick, 2020 IL App (1st) 190879-U, ¶ 34. We further found that

plaintiff did not meet his burden to prove Urban Prep’s stated reason was pretextual. Id. at ¶ 35.

We found plaintiff’s “entire argument [to be] pure speculation,” which could not constitute

substantial evidence, and that there was “no evidence that [Urban Prep] relied upon his arrest rather

than the convictions for ‘violent’ offenses in making the adverse employment decision.” Id. at ¶¶

36; 38. We further explained that there was no evidence to support plaintiff’s claim “that the only

individuals CPS could place on its ‘do not hire’ list were those with convictions on the enumerated

offenses list.” Id. at ¶ 36. To the contrary, there was testimony that the list was “not exhaustive,”

and we concluded that “it follows that CPS still has discretion regarding placing teachers on the

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Related

Kilpatrick v. Illinois Department of Human Rights Comm'n
2025 IL App (1st) 242176-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2025)

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