advertisement

Suit: Teacher's firing from Dist. 300 retaliatory

A former first-grade teacher at a West Dundee school claims in a lawsuit she was fired after complaining that a special needs student was hurting other students and no one attempted to stop it.

Jeanette Runge is suing Hampshire-based Community Unit District 300, the school board and Dundee Highlands Elementary Principal Patricia Schmidt, seeking damages under the state's Whistleblower Act.

According to the suit, Runge, a third-year probationary teacher at Dundee Highlands Elementary School, complained in September 2013 that a special education student in her class was disruptive and had caused physical injuries to other students.

Runge, the suit states, also told Schmidt that the district was not following the state-mandated Individual Education Plans and Behavior Intervention Plans for the students.

"(Runge) refused to agree to or condone these violations. In response to these additional complaints, Schmidt immediately started fabricating negative performance evaluations of plaintiff's performance." the suit argues.

Schmidt became "hostile and unfriendly" toward Runge, which created a hostile work environment, and her supervisors didn't take any action after Runge took her concerns to them, the lawsuit argues.

On Schmidt's recommendation, the school board fired Runge on March 10. The board also refused Runge's request to reconsider its decision months later, the lawsuit argues.

"Defendants violated their own anti-harassment and anti-retaliation policies by failing to order corrective action and by terminating plaintiff's employment," the lawsuit argues.

Runge's attorney, Steven Glink, said his client's previous reviews were good and, even though his client was a nontenured teacher, she is still protected under law.

"I'm sure what the district is going to say is she is a probationary teacher and doesn't have any rights," Glink said. "I dispute that completely. You can't fire somebody for an illegal reason."

Messages left Wednesday and Thursday at the district's communications office were not returned, and a message left Thursday for Schmidt also was not returned.

The case is first due in court on Jan. 8. Runge seeks unspecified damages.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.