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Politics & Government

D-15 Responds to Federal Lawsuit with Motion to Dismiss

District claims plaintiff is a disgruntled former employee searching for a way to hold them responsible for her own inability to perform her job

Community Consolidated School District 15 along with several administrators named by a former assistant principal Elizabeth Wong in a federal lawsuit alleging wrongful termination filed a joint motion to dismiss on Dec. 19.

In the lawsuit filed Oct. 18, . She also alleged District officials violated the Illinois Whistleblower Act when she was fired. She is seeking at least $500,000 in damages.

D-15’s response in support of their motion states Wong was informed last Spring that her contract would not be renewed based on serious performance issues noted by her principal, Mary Szuch.

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These performance issues included disseminating the results of a school climate survey without Szuch’s permission. It further states that rather than accepting that her performance was found wanting, she blamed her termination on the acts of others.

“She now claims that the School District and the other named Defendants conspired to retaliate against her in violation of the First Amendment, common law and the Illinois Whistleblower Act.  . . . These claims are not only unfounded, they are legally unsustainable” the district argues.   

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The motion seeks to dismiss all four counts of the lawsuit.

In their conclusion, attorneys for District 15, Superintendent Scott Thompson, Szuch and the other administrators allege “Wong is a disgruntled former employee, searching for a way to hold her employer responsible for her own inability to perform her job.”

Wong’s response to the district’s motion to dismiss is due no later than Jan. 23, 2012.

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