A discrimination lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District court, naming Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200, girls cross-country coach Thomas Tarrant and OPRF athletic director John Stelzer as the defendants.
The suit, filed on June 24, claims Tarrant, who is also a special education behavioral interventionist at the high school, subjected special education teacher and former girls cross-country assistant coach Danielle Dobias to sexual and retaliatory discrimination — in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The litany of complaints Dobias makes against Tarrant in the lawsuit date back to as early as January 2012, when Dobias “complained to superiors for having no behavioral interventionist support from Tarrant in her classroom.”
Dobias alleges that in March 2012, Tarrant told her, “I am in love with you,” before she rejected his advances. Both were married at the time, the lawsuit notes.
In April 2012, Tarrant allegedly told Dobias, “I would be the perfect match for you,” before Dobias “again rejected his advances.” And in that same month, Tarrant allegedly gave Dobias a “cloth blanket, saying it was ‘good for fertility,'” before Dobias “again rejected his advances.”
Dobias claims that, after her repeated rejections, Tarrant began “a pattern of retaliatory freeze-out” against her.
The lawsuit states that Tarrant’s duties as a special education behavioral interventionist includes “assisting students, and special education teachers such as [Dobias], with disruptive and/or disorderly students in [her] classroom.”
In July 2012, Dobias claims Tarrant began ignoring her requests for special education behavioral intervention in her classroom, “putting [her] and students in danger.”
During one incident in September 2012, Dobias claims her students stopped doing their work and told her, ‘You won’t be here for much longer.’ When Dobias sent the students to Tarrant’s office for discipline, the students allegedly returned laughing and said, ‘Everyone says you are getting fired.’
“From October to December 2012, Tarrant continued to fail to respond to Dobias’ requests for behavioral intervention, the lawsuit claims
Tarrant’s alleged retaliation reached a climax in March 2013, when Dobias claims he “refused and failed to go to [her] aid or send anyone else,” after one of Dobias’ students “threw a computer and yelled he was going to ‘kill’ [her] and the students in her classroom.”
She was allegedly “left to fend off the threatening student and to protect the other students with no assistance.”
Dobias also claims Tarrant “stalked her while she coached the boys track and field team” and that a school employee once told her that Tarrant “was looking at her emails,” among other accusations.
The lawsuit alleges that District 200 officials, and specifically OPRF Athletic Director John Stelzer, continuously refused to discipline Tarrant.
Tarrant also is alleged to have “sent an email to a school parent and another school employee that contained pornographic material. According to the lawsuit, the matter was reported to Stelzer, who “ordered the school employee to destroy the Tarrant email.”
Dobias also claims that in January 2013, Stelzer fired her as assistant cross-country coach for the following year and told her, “If the relationship improves with Tom [Tarrant], you will be able to reapply for the” the position.
After having downgraded her coaching performance from ‘excellent’ prior to July 2012 to ‘good’ to ‘satisfactory’ thereafter, Tarrant allegedly refused to review the latest performance evaluation with Dobias — a move that the lawsuit claimed was sanctioned by Seltzer.
Dobias allegedly took her complaints about Tarrant and Seltzer to then-Human Resources Director Lauren Smith in January 2013. Smith, however, allegedly cancelled the meetings scheduled to discuss the complaints “without explanation.”
In April 2013, the D200 Board of Education voted not to renew Smith’s contract, a decision that was “based on actions by the director that were deemed ’embarrassing’ but not illegal with respect to her duties,” sources close to the matter told Wednesday Journal at the time.
In March 2013, Dobias was allegedly told that her complaints were under investigation and she “was to stay away from school until she was told to return.” That same month, she was “required to sign a no-contact document about” Tarrant and also ordered to sign a document “that she would not talk to or about Tarrant or park next to him.”
In September and November 2013, Tarrant allegedly filed two separate written complaints against Dobias that accused her of “verbal and physical aggression,” “violation of the non-contact agreement,” “violations of administrative guidance regarding [her attendance at an] IHSA event,” and “assault” among other accusations.
The lawsuit claims that after two different internal investigations, all allegations “were determined to be unfounded, but that Dobias nonetheless “received a written reprimand.”
Tarrant’s allegations against Dobias in those written complaints prompted her to sue Tarrant, Stelzer and D200 in Cook County Circuit Court in 2013 “for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to the Cook County Record. Dobias sought more than $50,000 in damages. That case, however, was eventually dismissed.
When contacted to comment on the allegations, Tarrant, whose legal representation is being provided by D200, said he couldn’t comment on the matter, but that “I’m sick to my stomach about a lot of it” and is “waiting for it to finish.”
D200 Communications Director Karin Sullivan said the district can’t comment on pending litigation, but that the defamation case’s dismissal “speaks for itself.”
Nicholas Esposito, who is Dobias’ attorney, said he doesn’t agree with the outcome of the defamation case and plans to appeal the decision.
The federal lawsuit is an altogether different matter. Although it was formally filed in June this year, the process leading to the lawsuit’s formal filing stems back to 2013.
Since Dobias was alleging discrimination based on sex and retaliation, she had to first obtain a “Notice-of-Right-to-Sue” with the Illinois Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) — a process that can take upwards of six months. Dobias obtained her right to sue letter this spring, Esposito said.
“This is not over with,” he said.
This article has been updated to reflect that Dobias’s suit alleges discrimination based on “sex and retaliation,” not race. Wednesday Journal regrets this error.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com
