The breakup of a large high school athletic league in the southsuburbs is an "apartheid-like" maneuver that has "revived racialsegregation in public schools" in violation of students' civilrights, according to a lawsuit that attorneys say will be filed todayin federal court.
The defection of two dozen schools from the South Inter-Conference Association amounts to "white flight," school leaders,students and parents from the Thornton Township and ThorntonFractional school systems allege in their complaint, a copy of whichwas obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The suit aims to restore the conference -- known as SICA -- to 35schools and have a judge appoint someone to monitor diversity issuesin the league for two years. It names as defendants 13 south andsouthwest suburban high school districts that have left or areleaving the league.
"The defendants, by seceding from SICA, have erected a racialMason-Dixon line down I-57," the complaint reads. "In seceding fromSICA, they are creating, to the extent feasible, separateinterscholastic competitions for white and black students -- andracial motivations are the reason."
The flap regarding the conference began in December 2004 and issparking SICA to split into three different leagues. In early 2005,five schools -- T.F. South, T.F. North, Thornridge, Thornton andThornwood -- petitioned the Illinois State Board of Education to stopthe breakup, charging that it discriminated against their students.
'WE'RE STILL SOMEWHAT TOGETHER'
The five schools withdrew that petition after efforts to find asolution through mediation failed. It is the school boards, studentsand parents from those schools who are included as plaintiffs in thelawsuit being filed today.
Officials from the school districts breaking ties with SICA saidFriday that race never motivated them to leave the league.
The breakup has been under review by Illinois Attorney GeneralLisa Madigan's office for several months, they added, and Madigan hasnot declared it discriminatory. A source in Madigan's office,however, said the issue remains under investigation.
"There are a lot of different factors that went into it -- thetravel times, the neighborhood rivalries" and enrollments of theschools, said High School District 218 Supt. Kevin Burns, whoseEisenhower, Richards and Shepard schools all will leave SICA at theend of this year for a new league that Burns will oversee.
Lincoln-Way High School District 210 Supt. Lawrence Wyllie --whose Central and East high schools began competing this year in anew conference he's helping lead -- noted that there's more todiversity than conference alignments.
"We split away because we're all big high schools, and we've allgot a lot in common, but we also play our non-conference gamesagainst other SICA schools," including those in Bloom and Thorntontownships, Wyllie said. "It's really like we're still somewhattogether."
A statistical analysis in the federal court complaint tries toprove otherwise. Before the breakup, the league's schoolscollectively were 64 percent white, 19 percent black and 17 percentother races. Now it will break down this way, according to thelawsuit:
- In the Southwest Suburban Conference, where the Lincoln-Wayteams play, the racial makeup of the schools is nearly 75 percentwhite. Of the remaining students, about half are black.
- In the South Suburban Conference, which will begin play in thefall and be comprised of schools leaving SICA at the end of thisschool year, the racial makeup is nearly 60 percent white. Of theremaining students, slightly more than half are black.
- Once those two leagues are up and running, SICA will be leftwith 11 schools, all of which are east of Interstate 57. Thoseschools are 73 percent black and 18 percent white.
The suit alleges that the racial breakdown of the three leaguesviolates state and federal anti-discrimination laws. Also included isa transcript of a March 2005 racially charged telephone message lefton a reporter's cell phone from the home phone of a white Lincoln-Way school board member.
The caller phoned the reporter but, instead of hanging up,continued to speak to someone who was with her, leaving thatconversation on the reporter's voice mail.
COMPROMISE UNRAVELS
The board member resigned after the newspaper wrote storiesdetailing how the caller used the words "poor blackie" on the voicemail and spoke disparagingly about Rich Central, East and South,three mostly black SICA schools.
"Why are they failing?" the caller said. "Because of what's in'em."
Matthew Piers, the lead lawyer representing Thornton Township HighSchool District 205, Thornton Fractional High School District 215 andthe other plaintiffs, said the federal lawsuit could have beenavoided had all 35 schools once in SICA signed off on a compromisestruck with the help of a mediator brought in by the state Board ofEducation last year.
That compromise "primarily divided these schools based on size ofenrollment," said Piers, who was involved in the discussions. "Thosethree groupings were largely racially balanced."
But when one school district balked at the proposed resolution,the deal unraveled, Piers said. At that point, schools looking topush the discrimination issue withdrew their complaint with the stateboard and began pursuing other avenues.
Among the lawsuit's supporters is South Side and south suburbanU.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.). "Public education should bringgroups together, not divide them," Jackson said in a statement.
"We should not still see school boards taking actions that eitherby intent or effect separate children by race."
Chris Fusco is a Sun-Times staff reporter. Joe Trost is a Sun-Times free-lance reporter.
cfusco@suntimes.com
FROM ONE LEAGUE TO THREE:
Before the South Inter-Conference Association began breaking upinto three leagues this school year, its racial makeup was 64 percentwhite, 19 percent black and 17 percent other races. Here's a look athow the three new leagues stack up:
SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN CONFERENCE
Schools: Bolingbrook, Stagg (Palos Hills), Sandburg (Orland Park),Joliet, Lockport, Lincoln-Way East (Frankfort), Lincoln-Way Central(New Lenox), Andrew (Tinley Park), Homewood-Flossmoor, Bradley-Bourbonnais.
Racial makeup: 74.62 percent white, 13.39 percent black, 11.99percent other.
SOUTH SUBURBAN CONFERENCE
Schools: Bremen (Midlothian), Evergreen Park, Hillcrest, OakForest, Tinley Park, Eisenhower (Blue Island), Richards (Oak Lawn),Oak Lawn, Reavis (Burbank), Romeoville,* Argo (Summit), Shepard(Palos Heights).
Racial makeup: 58.31 percent white, 23.08 percent black, 18.61percent other
SICA (REMAINING SCHOOLS)
T.F. North (Calumet City), T.F. South (Lansing), Thornton(Harvey), Thornridge (Dolton), Thornwood (South Holland), Bloom(Chicago Heights), Rich Central (Olympia Fields), Rich East (ParkForest), Rich South (Richton Park), Kankakee, Crete-Monee.
Racial makeup: 72.71 percent black, 17.73 percent white, 9.56percent other.
*Romeoville has since joined the Suburban Prairie Conference butwas to be included in the SSC.
Sources: Law firm of Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym Ltd. andChicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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