JOLIET, IL — Rheon Gibson, the Troy Central Consolidated School District 30-C’s only Black district-level adminstrator in 2022-2023, has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in federal court contending he was ousted after complaining about the upper-administration’s Snoop on a Stoop doll and game.
“Plaintiff found the Snoop on a Stoop game and doll racist and offensive,” Gibson’s federal lawsuit outlined. “He was forced by Defendant to pose with the picture as part of Defendant’s team building … and it was emailed out on December 1, 2022. Additionally, Dr. (Jillian) Tsoukalas required Plaintiff to pose with the Snoop doll, which is also attached below. As the picture shows, Plaintiff covered the racist doll up in his hand and was marginalized and discriminated against by the situation.”
Before publishing this story, Patch reached out to Troy 30-C director of communications Sarah Wells, who responded, “Troy CCSD 30-C is unable to comment due to active litigation. “
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According to Gibson’s federal lawsuit, Troy Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Jillian “Jill” Tsoukalas brought in a Snoop on a Stoop doll in December 2022, and she sent out pictures to employees in Gibson’s work group. The Snoop on a Stoop doll game was not played inside any of Troy’s elementary schools or at the junior high. Rather, it was played by the superintendent’s administration at the district offices, according to Gibson’s lawsuit.
“Dr. Tsoukalas created a game where the rules were for members of the Department of Teaching and Learning to go around the district office and pose in pictures with the ‘Snoop on a Stoop’ doll. Some of the pictures used slang terminology and continued to reiterate a negative racist stereotype and several concerning images,” Gibson’s lawsuit noted.
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Gibson said he was forced to participate in the Snoop on a Stoop events even though he was Troy’s only Black district-level administrator and did not agree with the game.
“Plaintiff felt that the Snoop on Stoop and what occurred with it was directly designed by Dr. Tsoukalas directed at Plaintiff to put him down and in his place,” Gibson’s lawsuit noted.
Gibson is being represented by Buffalo Grove lawyer Steven Horak, who runs the Law Office of Steven D. Horak.
After he complained about the Snoop on a Stoop game to Troy Superintendent Paul Schrik, Gibson said that Tsoukalas sent out a lengthy apology to several of the district-level staff.
As for Gibson, his tenure at Troy suddenly went downhill after he complained about Tsoukalas and her Snoop on a Stoop doll game to the superintendent. By March, Troy’s first-year superintendent Schrik informed Gibson that he could resign from Troy or face termination.
Gibson served as the director of student and family services for Troy 30-C for the 2022-2023 school year.
Before Troy hired him during the summer of 2022, Gibson was an elementary school principal in DeKalb. Nowadays, Gibson is employed as a dean at East Aurora High School in Aurora.
“I took a huge demotion from a district-level role back to building-level role standing up against that Snoop on a Stoop doll,” Gibson wrote Joliet Patch last week.
According to Gibson, his demise at Troy schools began after he complained about Assistant Superintendent Tsoukalas, “who decided it was a great idea to use the ‘Snoop on a Stoop’ doll as a ‘fun winter team building experience.'”
Even though Gibson resisted, “Tsoukalas required employees to take pictures with the Snoop on a Stoop doll and emailed them to the work group,” Gibson’s lawsuit noted.
“At other times Dr. Tsoukalas placed money on it, which was even more racist and inappropriate. Plaintiff told the Superintendent, Dr. Paul Schrik, that the Snoop on a Stoop doll was multiculturally insensitive, reiterates negative stereotypes, and is COMPLETELY inappropriate in ANY Pre-K through 8th grade setting.”
Gibson said he complained about the racist pictures of the Snoop on a Stoop doll on Dec. 12, 2022, and also complained that Tsoukalas was now assigning him more work duties, duties another district employee, director of special education, Michelle Laird, was unable to perform.
According to his lawsuit, during Gibson’s meeting with the Troy Superintendent, Gibson raised concerns that Tsoukalas would handle his job evaluations, and he asked Schrik to have someone other than Tsoukalas rate him prior to his observation date.
“Plaintiff believed that Dr. Tsoukalas was racist, he made a complaint about racism about her and as already retaliating against him,” Gibson’s lawsuit noted. “Dr. Schrik ignored Plaintiff’s request and complaint of discrimination and had Dr. Tsoukalas whom he reported on 12/12/22 about racial discrimination to evaluate the Plaintiff.”
According to the lawsuit against Troy 30-C, “Even though Plaintiff asked to be rated by another person, Dr. Tsoukalas completed Plaintiff’s evaluation and gave Plaintiff poor review and rated him as a Needs Improvement rating in five out of six categories … plaintiff was shocked to get the rating as he had no complaint of his work and was told he was doing a great job. Plaintiff has been in the field of education since 2008 and has never gotten a Needs Improvement rating on an evaluation, until after he reported the Defendant and received an evaluation from her.”
On March 13, 2023, Gibson said he had his evaluation meeting with Superintendent Schrik, which lasted only 6-8 minutes.
“Dr. Schrik concluded the meeting by telling the Plaintiff that he had two options: 1. Submit a Letter of Resignation 2. Be fired at the next board meeting. Defendant gave no option for Plaintiff to continue his employment. If Plaintiff accepted to be fired, he would have been suffered great consequence in that a termination would cause him difficulty to find a new job in the education field,” Gibson’s lawsuit outlined. “To mitigate his damages, Plaintiff choose the resignation so that he could find other work.”
Gibson’s federal discrimination lawsuit argues that Troy 30-C made his working environment intolerable.
“Defendant created games Defendant called ‘team building’ but its effect was to intentionally exclude Plaintiff. On other occasions, Defendant had a game … called ‘Celebrity Applause.’ This game is played by clapping for someone when they enter/exit the room as if they were a celebrity. During this team building game, everyone was clapped for but the Plaintiff. Additionally, employees of Defendant treated Plaintiff inferior to other employees due to his race and or in retaliation for Plaintiff making a complaint of discrimination.”
His lawsuit also noted that by November 29, 2022, Gibson learned that Michelle Laird “was transferring her job responsibilities that she was falling on to him, and he was not assigned such duties. Dr. Tsoukalas assigned Plaintiff Laird’s job duties on December 7, 2022, plus added additional duties that all counselors and social workers were to contact the Plaintiff and were not allowed to reach out to Laird … Tsoukalas did not rate Laird lower for her failure to perform her job duties and instead blamed the Plaintiff for Laird’s work deficiencies even though Plaintiff was not responsible for the work.”
Gibson’s lawsuit pointed out that Troy chose to replace him with an employee who was not Black.
“”In a Pre-K through 8th grade educational setting, how can you look at the negative stereotypes of the Snoop on a Stoop doll and see humor, while at the same time, look at youthful minority faces and see them reaching their full potential?” Gibson wrote Joliet Patch. “If no one in an entire district office was going to stand up to this, I was! And I may have lost a position and the most profit I’ve ever made, but I stayed true to my purpose.”
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