Former Auburn Teachers Claim Discrimination

Rockford, Illinois- Mark Sterling has been a teacher for 14 years; the last four of those at Auburn High School. He was about to be tenured. "I`m mystified," he says, "I`m mystified completely and totally." That is because in March, Sterling heard unexpected news. "You could have knocked me over with a feather," he says. He was handed an unsatisfactory evaluation and told he no longer worked at Auburn. "I hadn`t done anything wrong. If I had, somebody would have called me up. There`d be a letter in my file." Then Sterling says, he found out he was one of six white, male teachers let go by the school`s new principal, Janice Hawkins. Hawkins is a black female. Sterling filed a grievance and received a letter from the school board stating that the evaluation did not follow procedure and was to be thrown out. But Sterling, and the five other teachers, did not get their jobs back. And just Thursday, Principal Janice Hawkins was out of work, also. She has been placed on temporary administrative leave for unknown reasons. Rockford Schools Superintendent Dr. Thompson would only tell WTVO, "I never wait when an issue comes up to me. I have to deal with it." Sterling says he has heard nothing from the school board and thinks this is a case of discrimination. "It seems to be a racial, sexual issue, yes." Now Sterling says he and the five other teachers are taking their case to the Equal Employment Occupation Commission (EEOC) in Chicago. "I just want to go back to teaching special education. I find it challenging. Not many people want to do it," says Sterling, "this is going to be devastating for the kids and that`s the bottom line."