Chicago Board of Education

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CPS hit with 9th lawsuit from CO leak that sickened 71 kids

Nov 1, 2016 | WLSAM Staff

(CHICAGO) Chicago’s Board of Education is facing at least its ninth lawsuit since a carbon monoxide leak at Northwest Side school last fall that sent dozens of children to hospitals.

Maria Bogojel filed the suit Monday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of her son, a student at Prussing Elementary School, 4650 N. Menard Ave.

About 9:30 a.m. Oct. 30, 2015, emergency crews were called for a report of a sick child in the gymnasium, fire officials said at the time. The school was evacuated when high carbon monoxide levels were detected in the hallways.

At least 71 children and seven adults were taken to various hospitals with dizziness, nausea and abdominal pain. None of the illnesses were thought to be life-threatening.

The school’s boiler was the source of the leak, Chicago Public Schools officials said at the time. Representatives did not immediately return requests for comment on the latest lawsuit Monday evening.

Bogojel claims her son suffered serious injuries and that school officials should have better maintained the building’s boiler vent system. The three-count negligence suit seeks more than $150,000 in damages.

Six other Prussing families filed suit against the school board in November 2015, followed by two more this past August.

Pregnant teachers illegally fired at Northwest Side elementary, DOJ alleges

Dec 23, 2014 |

(Chicago) Pregnant teachers at a Northwest Side elementary school were fired in violation of the law when they announced their pregnancies, the U.S. Justice Department alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges pregnant teachers at Scammon Elementary School were given lower performance evaluations, disciplined, threatened with termination and in eight cases fired or forced to leave by principal Mary Weaver and the Chicago Board of Education, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The firings and discipline violated the Civil Rights Act, which explicitly prohibits employers from discriminating against female employees due to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, the feds say.

The feds want a judge to impose a court order requiring the board to put in place policies to end discrimination against pregnant teachers, plus compensation for the teachers who were harmed by the alleged discrimination.

The lawsuit was filed after two teachers who were pregnant while working at Scammon filed sex discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found “reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred” at Scammon.

“No woman should have to make a choice between her job and having a family,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta for the Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “Federal law requires employers to maintain a workplace free of discrimination on the basis of sex.”

“Despite much progress, we continue to see the persistence of overt pregnancy discrimination, as well as the emergence of more subtle discriminatory practices in the workplace,” added EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang.

-Sun-Times