The district’s former Director of Technology, Mickey Chavannes, was fired by the Shorewood School Board after a pre-termination hearing on May 11, 2022. School board members voted 5-0 in favor of terminating Chavannes’ employment. Chavannes’ and the district’s legal teams presented their arguments as to whether Chavannes’ actions violated a set of explicit directives given to Chavannes by Interim Superintendent JoAnn Sternke during an investigation into “racially insensitive” text messages uncovered by Chavannes and his subordinate.

On Thursday February 24, 2022, Chavannes’ subordinate on the district’s IT staff was clearing former Lake Bluff principal Tammy Rasco’s district device in order to prepare the computer for new usage after Rasco announced a leave of absence. Chavannes’ subordinate discovered a text chain between four Black district administrators on a district device: Sam Coleman, the district’s Director of Education; Kim Salem, former HR director; Rasco, former Lake Bluff principal; and Shari Tucker, Director of Equity. The text chain was allegedly racially insensitive and included unprofessional language in regards to subordinates of the administrators. Language that was allegedly used included the terms “Cracker,” “Cracka,” “Cracklin,” “white folks,” “white ladies,” “white devil,” and “minority Jewish.”

The text chain was reported to Chavannes, who is white, and Chavannes then reported the chain to Sternke, who is also white. While Sternke and the district’s lawyers began an immediate investigation of the text chain, she provided directives for Chavannes to follow: he was to keep the situation confidential, to refrain from discussing possible school district litigation and to set the laptop aside. 

Chavannes admitted that he brought the laptop computer to his home, and left it there; however, he argued that it was normal for him to bring district devices home to work on while out of the office. In addition, Chavannes made multiple flash drives with a record of the text chain in order to “preserve” the messages, an instruction he claims was given to him by Sternke. Chavannes also discussed possible litigation with a staff member and failed to disclose that his subordinate had seen the messages, so Sternke was unaware that other staff members had already seen the chain. Chavannes expressed fear that in reporting the text messages to Sternke, he would lose his job.

Sternke stated that Chavannes acted dishonestly, violated all of her directives and in doing so, potentially jeopardized the ongoing investigation into the text chain. On March 3, 2022, Chavannes was placed on paid administrative leave. While on leave, Chavannes received additional directives to not communicate with district staff members and students at any point, even about unrelated topics, and to not engage in conduct that would undermine the investigation. Chavannes allegedly violated these directives by communicating with one of his subordinates. Initially, this communication was to delegate his responsibilities so that Shorewood students could have devices to take the statewide Forward exams; later, Chavannes and his subordinate briefly communicated with regards to the investigation. As a result, Sternke recommended that the school board terminate Chavannes’ employment within the district. Chavannes specifically requested that his pre-termination hearing be open to the public.

After being put on leave, Chavannes got a lawyer, Nate Cade. Cade leaked the sample terms to local media outlets directly before Chavannes’ pre-termination hearing, and claimed that Chavannes was fired due in part to “reverse discrimination.”

“The four individuals [in the text message chain] are not suspended. It’s clear as day they should have been,” Cade said. “If those were white administrators, they would have been suspended immediately. No doubt about it.”

Since the samples of the text messages were leaked, two out of the four involved parties have officially resigned. Rasco’s resignation was approved by the school board at their May 10 meeting. At the time of the Board Meeting, the resignation was not on the agenda. Salem resigned on May 9 citing an “opportunity outside of education.” Salem’s resignation was approved at the May 24 school board meeting. Coleman is currently on leave.

In an interview with Ripples, Coleman reaffirmed his stance in the Journal Sentinel that “reverse discrimination” does not exist and that students and staff members should be more concerned about the treatment of Black staff and adminstrators than the allegedly offensive text message chain.

“My comments are not at all to address what was being accused. And nor were my comments to address personnel matters. But zooming out, my point was, it is not for white people or anybody to try to sanction how Black people may or may not cope with, respond to or react to racism,” Coleman said. “Instead of trying to discover how [Black individuals] talk about [racial hostility] and experience it, it’s really like, how can we address and remedy the racial hostility that they’re enduring?”

Cade, who is African-American, feels that this is a convenient excuse for what he perceives as unprofessional and unethical behavior from administrators towards their subordinates.

“I get frustration, I get expressing it. But you know what you don’t get to express? You don’t get to express those views and be in a position of power. And when you get caught, apologize, say ‘Hey, you know what, you’re right. We did wrong. We screwed up. I’m sorry. Period.’ You don’t turn around, double down, and say, ‘I can’t be racist because I’m Black,’” Cade said.

Due to the ongoing investigation, Coleman could not directly confirm or deny whether any of Cade’s alleged terms were a part of the text message chain. However, he did confirm that the term “minority Jewish” has never been apart of any conversation he has had surrounding the racism or discrimination Black people face.

“What I will say is there are things that were alleged [to have been] said in those conversations that were never said,” Coleman said. “I think people believe that these statements were made because it was written in [local news outlets].”

Cade intends to sue the district over Chavannes’ termination.

“There will be some more open records requests and there’ll be more evidence. I kind of have an idea of some things that went on. I’m not disclosing just yet,” Cade said. 

Cade’s attorneys filed an initial open records request with the district on March 12, 2022 that aimed to obtain the text messages between the four employees. An open records request allows for the public to obtain internal district documents and emails. Cade’s open records request was denied by the district’s lawyers citing the public’s “strong interest in protecting the aforementioned information from disclosure.”

Due in part to the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation, the district’s lawyers also argued that in order for the four administrators to have a fair and impartial hearing, the requested text message chain must remain private district property until the conclusion of the investigation. Coleman, however, told Ripples that the text message chain would remain private even after the investigation is over.

“I can say that there won’t ever be [public documentation] of the text messages because any private communication that people are having is protected under the First Amendment, and so there won’t ever be any receipts,” Coleman said.

The First Amendment does not protect text messages from being subject to subpoena or disclosure, nor could it prevent the district from releasing the text chain, since a copy was made and is currently in district possession.

JoAnn Sternke was interviewed and provided a written statement for Ripples. Sternke reaffirmed the district’s commitment to handling the administrator investigations sensitively.

“Administrative investigations and possible resulting disciplinary actions of the District are carefully considered and undertaken to ensure that our standards of honesty, integrity and professional conduct are not compromised,” Sternke’s statement read.