Former Shorewood Schools employee sues district alleging his firing was retaliatory over reporting racist texts

A former Shorewood School District employee has filed a federal lawsuit against his former employer and its insurance company over what he says was retaliation for coming forward with text messages he discovered that were sent between staff members and included "deficit-based language" toward other staff members.

"Deficit-based language" is language that reinforces negative stereotypes.

Working on behalf of Michael Chavannes, Cade Law Group filed the suit Jan. 1 in the Eastern District of Wisconsin court against the school district and ABC Insurance Co.

Chavannes alleges he was fired in May 2022 in retaliation for bringing to the district's attention messages sent between former district employees Tammy Rasco, Kim Salem, Sam Coleman and current employee Shari Tucker, all four of whom are Black. Chavannes, who is white, said the messages contained "deficit-based language" targeting white employees with terms such as "cracker," "white folk," "white ladies," "white devil," "minority Jewish" and more, according to the lawsuit.

Coleman and Rasco said the messages were response to racism they and other Black colleagues had experienced.

Chavannes was the district's director of information technology.

Rasco was principal of Lake Bluff Elementary School; Salem was the Shorewood School District's director of human resources and Coleman was the Shorewood School District's director of curriculum and instruction. All three have since resigned from the district. Tucker is still employed as the district's director for equity.

The lawsuit alleges race discrimination, age discrimination, retaliation and interference with benefits. Chavannes is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney's fees and reinstatement to his former job.

Shorewood School District communications specialist Katelin Watson said in an email the district has not yet received notice of the lawsuit but said when it does it will "respond to it in the manner required by law."

"Since this is a matter of litigation, the Shorewood School District will not comment or respond any further at this time," said Watson.

Online court records show a court date has not been set yet. It's unclear how long the district has to respond since the district has not yet been been formally served.

Chavannes was fired after reporting messages

According to the lawsuit:

As the district's director of technology, Chavannes had access to school laptops as part of his job duties.

Coleman and Tucker led trainings on the district's equity initiative, "which focuses heavily around addressing deficit-based language," the lawsuit said.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Chavannes' subordinate alerted Chavannes to text messages found on Rasco's district-issued laptop, which "contained deficit-based language directed toward staff members."

Chavannes reported the messages to his supervisor, interim Superintendent JoAnn Sternke, saying they "could be interpreted as creating a hostile work environment of administrators toward staff."

"Chavannes expressed to Sternke, 'what if it was a white administrator using the 'N' word toward any staff members' and that there needed to be a repercussion for using the same 'type of word towards white staff members,'" the lawsuit said.

Sternke did not ask Chavannes to write a report or file a complaint per the district's whistleblower policy, but instead told Chavannes to keep the laptop in a safe place. She did not ask again about the messages, the lawsuit said. Chavannes backed up the laptop's contents onto a USB drive to keep it safe per Sternke's request, the lawsuit said.

On March 2, 2022, Chavannes discovered additional messages on the desktop computer in Rasco's office between the four Black administrators referring to white employees by derogatory terms. Salem, Tucker and Coleman responded to the messages with "various laughing emojis," the lawsuit said. There was also a message with an image of Coleman drinking during work hours. Chavannes backed up those messages onto another USB drive. The next day, Chavannes was placed on administrative leave with no reason given "other than 'potential misconduct that [called] into question [his] ability to perform [his] job responsibilities as an administrator in the District,'" the lawsuit said.

In a letter to Shorewood School Board President Paru Shah, Sternke requested Chavannes' termination, saying Chavannes violated "directives" from her in handling the situation.

Representing the district at a school board hearing, attorney Sarah Hanneman said Sternke ordered Chavannes not to speak to anyone else about the text messages and not to do anything with the laptop except set it aside on a shelf.

Hanneman said Chavannes violated those directives the next day. He was placed on administrative leave and was given more directives, both verbally and in writing, including not to have any contact with any district employee during his leave and not to engage in conduct that would interfere with the district's investigation. Hanneman said Chavannes violated those additional directives, as well.

After a district investigation, Chavannes was fired.

The lawsuit maintains Chavannes "was fully within his job duties in reporting the discriminatory messages found on Ms. Rasco’s laptop" and that "data found on a work device is not subject to privacy."

The suit also says that despite violating a policy that says district property must only be used for district-related business, none of the administrators were suspended or placed on leave. It adds that, according to the employee handbook, there is no expectation of privacy for employees using the district's internet system.

The lawsuit also said the district discriminated against Chavannes when it fired him based on his age when it hired someone younger than 40 years old to replace him and that the district knew Chavannes "would be eligible for specific benefits at the start of the next school year" after he turned 50.

According to the suit, Chavannes was eligible to receive a $25,000 a year benefit that would begin when he turned 50 years old and that benefit would be paid from age 50 to 57.

That money goes into a health reimbursement account, and the employee is able to access it once the employee turns 57 and retires from the district, according to Chavannes' contract.

District takes action after messages

The district conducted staff training about race and equity and planned to disable iCloud on district technology, according to interim Superintendent JoAnn Sternke.

"As leaders and teachers, we must hold ourselves and each other to a heightened standard of excellence for communication, both in public and private," Sternke said in a prepared statement in fall. "Unfortunately, the identified text messages failed to meet this expectation."

Sternke said the district does not condone the "use of racial and inflammatory language" found in some of the text messages.

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Shorewood Schools employee files lawsuit against district