Protest launched over U-46 student expulsion

More than two dozen students, parents and Rainbow PUSH members Monday protested the expulsion of a Larkin High School senior who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit accusing Elgin Area School District U-46 of racial bias.

Deonte McFadden was suspended Oct. 8, reportedly for verbally assaulting a math teacher, his mother, Tracy McFadden, said.

At a hearing before the school board Oct. 20, Deonte was informed he'd been expelled from the high school, but had the option of attending U-46's alternative program instead. Deonte, a Royals varsity basketball player, was told he could no longer play for the team.

With 31 credits, Deonte was on track for graduation, and had a clean disciplinary record, Tracy McFadden said.

"I don't know if it's because of the lawsuit, but we do feel like it's unjust," she said. "He hasn't done anything to this extreme ... for him to be kicked out of school this last year of high school."

The family is requesting an appeal of the decision.

"This is his future," Tracy McFadden said. "This expulsion is on his record. No college wants to see that."

Also presented to board members Monday was an 8-page petition signed by Larkin students who objected to the expulsion.

Lenora Scruggs, vice president of Rainbow PUSH's northwest suburban chapter, told the board that her organization believes Deonte was unjustly punished.

"This whole incident seems to have snowballed out of control," Willard Elementary School secretary Donna Saurbaugh said.

Saurbaugh has known Deonte for the past six years, from playing on basketball teams with her son. "You are talking about a kid here, a father of a (baby), who has the opportunity to make something out of his life by going to college and getting an education through athletics.

"Do you want to be responsible for closing the door and throwing away the key on this kid?" she asked.

District officials declined to comment Tuesday, citing it as an internal student disciplinary matter.

If the expulsion stands, Deonte could be removed as a plaintiff from the case, said Carol Ashley, an attorney representing the five Elgin families suing the district. The lawsuit, filed nearly four years ago, alleges that the district discriminated against its black and Latino students by sending them to older, more crowded schools, forcing them to ride buses further and more often than their white peers, and providing them with inferior educational opportunities.

"I have four other children here. I really need to be able to trust the district," Tracy McFadden said. "I can't do it anymore."