A former Joliet school administrator said he was forced out of his job after complaining about a controversial game played at work, and now he’s taking the school district to court.
Rheon Gibson, the former director of student and family services for Joliet’s Troy Central Consolidated School District 30-C, said one of his bosses came up with the idea to play a game called "Snoop on a Stoop" as a team building exercise.
"I never heard of it until she brought [the] doll in," Gibson said.
Gibson said everyone in the department was told to take a picture with the doll, then share them via email. He said about 11 people took part in the game.
"The stereotypes speaks loudly," he said. "It's offensive. It’s an African American doll that has a marijuana blunt to his lips and a huge gold necklace with a marijuana leaf on it.”
Rheon said he reluctantly played the game, taking a picture with his hand covering up most of the doll.
Then he decided to report the game to higher-ups.
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"I then emailed the entire school board and informed them of the situation included the pics and everything," he said.
Gibson said there was never any follow up from the superintendent as promised.
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Weeks later, he had a review at work, and it wasn’t positive for him. He was given two options: resign or face termination.
He chose to leave, and he said the negative evaluation is false.
"If you get dismissed, it is hard to get a new job,” Gibson said. "I was doing an amazing job. I was an effective leader. When you get a needs improvement, you typically have goals, objectives that you have to meet. None of that happened to me. In fact, my final summative evaluation, I wasn't even informed of any deficit in my performance until the day of the final evaluation."
Gibson filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in federal court. Steven Horak is his attorney.
“You always have a system of progressive discipline … especially in a school - there is no discipline, there are no write-ups," Horak said. "When you look at the pictures, they are horrific. Why would anyone do that?"
The district sent this statement to NBC Chicago:
"The Board of Education of Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C is aware of former administrator Rheon Gibson’s recently filed lawsuit against it. The School District categorically denies Mr. Gibson’s allegations, specifically the claim that his one-year employment agreement was not renewed at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 school year for reasons unrelated to his performance. In fact, Mr. Gibson voluntarily resigned his employment with the School District in March 2023. In his lawsuit, Mr. Gibson references a colleague having inappropriately displayed a “Snoop on the Stoop” Christmas doll at work without the Board of Education’s or its Superintendent’s knowledge or approval. Immediately upon learning of the employee’s unauthorized actions, the School District’s Superintendent, Dr. Paul Schrik, had the doll, which resembles the rapper Snoop Dogg like the “Elf on the Shelf” Christmas doll, removed from the School District’s property and discipline was imposed. This incident, however, had nothing to do with Mr. Gibson’s performance evaluation rating or non-renewal. The Board of Education remains committed to providing an educational environment and workplace free of racism, discrimination, or harassment in any form. Such unlawful conduct has never, nor will it ever be condoned in Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C."
