Aku v. Chi. Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 14 November 2017
• Docket Number: 17–cv–1226
• Citation: 290 F.Supp.3d 852
• Parties: Lu AKU, Plaintiff, v. CHICAGO BOARD OF EDUCATION, Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, Brian E. Clauss, Cannon Cochran Management Services, Chicago Teachers Union, D'andre Weaver, Law Offices of Bradley Dworkin, Illinois Department of Human Rights, Illinois Human Rights Commission, Jack Sanker, Martay Law Office, Parkview Orthopaedic Group, Robin Potter, Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Robin Potter and Associates, P.C., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

290 F.Supp.3d 852

Lu AKU, Plaintiff,

v.CHICAGO BOARD OF EDUCATION, Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, Brian E. Clauss, Cannon Cochran Management Services, Chicago Teachers Union, D'andre Weaver, Law Offices of Bradley Dworkin, Illinois Department of Human Rights, Illinois Human Rights Commission, Jack Sanker, Martay Law Office, Parkview Orthopaedic Group, Robin Potter, Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Robin Potter and Associates, P.C., Defendants.

17–cv–1226

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Signed November 14, 2017

Lu Aku, Chicago, IL, pro se.

Lisa A. Dreishmire, Regan Cook Hildebrand, Board of Education of the City of Chicago Law Department, Joseph A. Bosco, Benjamin Lee Boroughf, LaRose & Bosco, Ltd., Athena T. Taite, Benjamin Lee Boroughf, Attorney Registration And Disciplinary Commission, Heather Anne Bailey, SmithAmundsen LLC, David A. Rabinowitz, Law Offices of Dworkin & Maciariello, Erin M. Petrolis, Office Of The Illinois Attorney General, David W. Martay, The Martay Law Office, Robin B. Potter, Potter Bolanos LLC, Allison Patricia Sues, Mark Matthew Brennan, Jonathan Edward Cavins, Chicago, IL, John Morris Russell, Lauren Ashley Wong, Russell & Oliver, PLC, Memphis, TN, Paul F. Stack, Stack & O'Connor Chartered, Riverside, IL, for Defendants.

John Z. Lee, United States District Judge

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Lu Aku ("Aku") filed this pro se lawsuit against his former employer, the Board of Education of the City of Chicago ("the Board"), D'Andre Weaver ("Weaver"), the principal at the school where Aku taught until 2014, and thirteen other defendants ("Non–Board Defendants"). Aku claims that the Board discriminated against him based on his age, sex, color, race, national origin, and disability in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), and retaliated against him for asserting his rights under those acts. Compl. ¶¶ 9, 10, 12(i), ECF No. 1. Aku further claims that the Non–Board Defendants—a broad range of parties that includes, among others, the Chicago Teachers Union, Aku's former medical provider and former attorneys, two third-party claims administrators for the Board, and the Illinois Human Rights Commission—conspired with and aided and abetted the Board in discriminating and retaliating against him, in violation of Title VII and the ADA. Id. ¶¶ 12(j), 13(h). The Board¹ moves to dismiss the complaint in part, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure ("Rule") 12(b)(6), ECF No. 76; twelve of the Non–Board Defendants² move, in nine separate motions, to dismiss the complaint as to each of them pursuant to both Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), ECF Nos. 10, 12, 22, 38, 46, 52, 64, 89, and 127. For the reasons given below, the Court grants in part and denies in part the Board's motion and grants each of the Non–Board Defendants' motions in full.

Factual Background ³

Aku, an African–American man born in 1967, began teaching science at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy ("Brooks"), a public school in Chicago, on August 27, 2007. Compl., Ex. Illinois Department of Human Rights ("IDHR") and EEOC Charge # 15W0707.03 ("Charge 03") at 1.

Aku experienced a number of challenges during the 2013–14 school year. In August 2013, Weaver, Brooks's Principal, informed Aku that Aku would not teach Physics for 2013–14, as expected, but instead he would teach Biology and Environmental Science. Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss, Ex. 4, Bullying Grievance ¶¶ 2, 6, 7, 9, ECF No. 96 ("Bullying Grievance"). Weaver then provided Aku with insufficient textbooks for his classes and scheduled Aku to teach during the science department's common planning time. Id. ¶ 9. Aku was also evaluated on a different schedule from the rest of Brooks's faculty, with a formal evaluation in fall 2013 and an informal evaluation in the spring; the other teachers had the reverse schedule, with their informal evaluation first. Id. ¶ 10; see Compl. ¶ 13. Furthermore, Weaver re-assigned Aku's tutoring responsibilities for Biology and Environmental Science, for which Aku had previously received overtime pay, to other teachers who were not teaching those subject areas. Bullying Grievance ¶¶ 28–30. On April 4, 2014, Weaver confronted Aku about a decision he had made to disqualify some Environmental Science students from taking a chapter test. Id. ¶ 27. In that conversation, Weaver told Aku that he should consider leaving the field of teaching. Id. ¶ 27; Compl. Ex. IDHR and EEOC Charge # 15W0807.07 ("Charge 07") at 2.

On April 30, 2014, Aku reported to a Chicago Public Schools Employment Compliance Administrator that the school administration had held a meeting in November 2013 for only African–American teachers, where Weaver had assured the teachers that their jobs were not in danger. Compl. ¶ 16, Charge 07 at 4; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 1, ECF No. 136. Aku received a negative teaching evaluation from Assistant Principal Shannae Jackson the following month. Charge 07 at 3. Weaver notified Aku in late June 2014 that he did not have a position at Brooks for the 2014–15 school year, Compl. ¶ 12(a), and that he needed math and science endorsements to teach in Brooks's new Science, Technology, Engineering & Math ("STEM") department. See Bullying Grievance ¶ 41; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 5. Aku later learned that a computer endorsement could substitute for a missing math or science endorsement. Bullying Grievance ¶ 41.

While Weaver told Aku about the new department's requirements on the same day that he notified Aku that he did not have a position, Weaver had notified other teachers of the new requirement earlier, allowing them to timely acquire their math endorsements. Bullying Grievance ¶ 41. According to Aku, Weaver had notified non-African–American science and math teachers of the change in their department and job requirements for 2014–15, before notifying the African–American teachers. Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 9. According to Aku, Weaver then terminated African–American teachers who lacked those endorsements, only to later staff the department with underqualified white teachers. See id. ¶¶ 17, 18.

Around this time, in June 2014, Aku filed his first claim for workers' compensation, related to an ankle injury incurred at Brooks in October 2013. Compl. ¶ 13; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Board Mot. Dismiss ¶ 2; Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss at 4. The ankle injury caused a medial talar dome lesion, which is in effect "a slow-forming, increasingly painful scar inside his ankle." Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss at 7.

After he was dismissed from Brooks, Aku also began filing IDHR complaints. He filed his first IDHR complaint on July 7, 2014, claiming that he was terminated from Brooks on June 26, 2014, due to age discrimination. Charge 03 at 1. Two months later, on August 7, 2014, Aku filed a second IDHR complaint, alleging harassment and unequal treatment, based on age and race, from August 2013 to May 2014, Charge 07 at 1–3, and retaliation and discrimination from May 2014 to August 2014, due to race and the filing of an earlier discrimination charge, id. at 3– 4.

On or about August 25, 2014, the Board began rehiring teachers who had been laid off from Brooks's math and science department in June 2014. Compl. Ex., IDHR and EEOC Charge # 15W0909.15 ("Charge 15") at 2. The Board recalled similarly situated non-black employees and employees who were younger than 40, but it did not recall Aku. Id. at 1–2. Specifically, no African–American science teachers were recalled to, or hired by, the department. Bullying Grievance ¶ 42; see also Compl. ¶ 13.

On September 10, 2014, Aku filed a third IDHR complaint, claiming that he was not recalled back to Brooks due to his age, race, and national origin. Charge 15 at 1–3. Aku then worked as a substitute teacher in September 2014. Compl. Ex., IDHR and EEOC Charge # 15W1027.16 ("Charge 16") at 2. As of October 29, 2014, he had not received pay for that work. Id. Aku proceeded to file a fourth and final IDHR complaint on October 29, 2014, alleging harassment and unequal pay from April 30 to October 3, 2014, in retaliation for filing discrimination charges. Id. at 1.

Aku continued to pursue workers' compensation. The Board has not yet responded to the workers' compensation claim that he filed in June 2014. Compl. ¶ 13. While a later claim for workers' compensation was granted in the summer of 2016, Aku still has not received all of the related benefits. Id. Defendants Sedgwick Claims Management Services ("Sedgwick") and Cannon Cochran Management Services ("Cannon") are respectively past and present third-party claims administrators for the Board. Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Cannon Mot. Dismiss at 2, ECF No. 80; Cannon Mot. Dismiss at 4, ECF No. 23.

Aku hired the firms of Martay Law ("Martay") and the Law Offices of Bradley Dworkin, P.C. ("Dworkin") to pursue his workers' compensation claims. Both firms are named as defendants, as is Jack Sanker ("Sanker"), an attorney then working at Dworkin. Compl. ¶ 16(f)(xiii). Aku was displeased with their performance: Martay Law for not taking any action for nineteen days after he retained them, Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Attorney Review and Disciplinary Committee (ARDC) Mot. Dismiss ¶ 3, ECF No. 93; and Dworkin and Sanker for not fully resolving his workers' compensation and total temporary benefit claims, id. ¶ 4. Aku filed complaints about Sanker and Martay Law with the Attorney Review and Disciplinary Commission, which he also sued as a defendant. See id. ; see also Compl. ¶ 16(f)(xi).

Defendant Parkview Orthopaedic Group ("Parkview") treated Aku for his ankle injury. Pl.'s Resp. Opp'n Parkview Mot. Dismiss at 3. Parkview did not determine the root cause of Aku's ankle injury. Id. at 5. Parkview released Aku back to full duty on November 9,...