Inspector General finds case was mishandled against former top admins at Chicago's Lincoln Park High School
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A former principal and assistant principal at Lincoln Park High School are still fighting to clear their names after allegations that they mishandled claims of sexual misconduct.
The allegations led to the firings of Principal John Thuet and Assistant Principal Michelle Brumfield in 2020. But this year, the Chicago Public Schools Inspector General ruled their case was mishandled.
"I knew my senior year in high school that I wanted to be an educator. Every news story I read about education—we need great teachers, we need great educators, and I've been ready and willing, and I've wanted to do this forever—and never wanted to quit," Thuet said, "and I can't do it anymore."
Thuet and Brumfield are on the CPS Do Not Hire List.
In January and February 2020—before the COVID pandemic shutdowns—Lincoln Park High School was embroiled in a headline-grabbing scandal that lasted weeks.
It started with a complaint about an unauthorized boys' varsity basketball team overnight trip to Detroit. During Christmas week in 2019, at the Motor City Roundball Classic in the Detroit suburb of Mount Clemens, Michigan, the team won two of their three games.
A week after the Detroit trip, school officials said the "overnight trip over winter break… was not a school-sponsored event. An investigation followed, and Thuet and Brumfield were removed from their positions.
The basketball coach and dean of the school were also reassigned, and as the school put it, "the remainder of the varsity boys' basketball season has been suspended until further notice."
Meanwhile, more complaints followed, including claims of sexual misconduct and retaliation by other students.
At the time, Thuet and Brumfield said they reported all the claims to the Office of Students Protections—as is protocol.
After Thuet and Brumfield were fired, angry parents complained that CPS was not forthcoming with facts. Meanwhile, students walked out of the school in protest, calling for Thuet and Brumfield to be reinstated and taking issue with the cancellation of the basketball season.
Protests against Thuet and Brumfield's termination took over the halls of Lincoln Park High School and CPS board meetings.
"It was incredible," said Thuet. "It was probably the reason I was able to kind of rebuild my life afterwards."
Why do they think CPS fired them in the first place?
"It's an answer that, you know, we don't have and that we haven't been given," Brumfield said.
It took four years for the CPS Office of the Inspector General to investigate and publish a report—which is overwhelmingly critical of the Office of Student Protections and CPS.
It notes an incredible conflict of interest, saying part of the Office of Student Protections' investigation into the matter started because of allegations made by a student whose mother actually ran that very office.
The Inspector General calls the investigation "off=-the-books," which "seems to have affected the terminations of Thuet and Brumfield—each of whom were supposedly fired because of misconduct."
Now, with a new Board of Education seated, Thuet and Brumfield want off the Do Not Hire list.
"I hope that anybody seeing us knows that it's OK to ask questions and push back when you don't think something's right," Thuet said.
Parents of Thuet and Brumfield's former students were expected to speak out in their defense at the Chicago Board of Education meeting Thursday night.
