Garcia condemns CPS legal attack on pregnant teachers
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 | Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago — Cook County Commissioner Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia blasted Mayor Emanuel’s school administration today for claiming that discrimination against pregnant teachers was “consistent with business necessity.”
“Discrimination may be business as usual for the Emanuel Administration, but it’s never a business 'necessity' -- and it’s always wrong,” said Garcia.
CPS has defended the discriminatory practices of Scammon Elementary School’s principal, who targeted pregnant teachers and teachers with newborns for discipline and dismissal with the tacit blessing of top CPS administrators, despite years of complaints and documentation of the discrimination.
“The CPS legal assault on these teachers speaks volumes about who the Emanuel Administration really cares about,” says Garcia. “Emanuel has gone to the wall to defend a wealthy venture capitalist whose companies profit from the schools she oversees -- while he’s defending discrimination against working mothers.”
The federal government filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Emanuel administration’s hand-picked school leadership team in December asserting that the CPS engaged in a pattern of discrimination and targeted pregnant teachers at the grade school.
“We need an elected school board that will root out unethical administrative practices -- rather than cover them up and defend their consequences,” said Garcia. “Emanuel’s school bureaucrats have chosen to attack victims of discrimination instead of ending that wrongdoing. An elected school board builds the ground for a school administration grounded in best practices, ethical governance, basic workers rights -- and accountability to neighborhood residents, rather than the special interests who’ve robbed kids and parents of quality neighborhood public schools,” says Garcia.
Contact: Monica Trevino press@chicagoforchuy.com
