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00-4059 Greer v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago

By: dmc-admin//October 8, 2001//

00-4059 Greer v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago

By: dmc-admin//October 8, 2001//

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“This case is somewhat unusual because it involves a school district’s reliance upon a consent decree, which was designed to eliminate vestiges of discrimination and to promote equal opportunity for minority teachers and students, as the basis for denying an African-American a teaching position at one particular school. Nevertheless, nothing prevented Greer from obtaining work at other schools in the district, and he has not brought a collateral attack on the decree itself. Based upon the record before us, the Board seems to be administering the decree in good faith, and it is well-settled that a valid conciliation agreement and consent decree cannot form the basis of a Title VII action.

“Greer must identify a comparator who is similarly situated to him in all material respects. Because the Board’s hiring practices are governed by the federal consent decree’s faculty integration guidelines, Greer was required to show, at minimum, that the Board allowed teachers of another race to work at schools even if their presence would have contributed to a racial imbalance among that school’s faculty. Greer testified that he was unaware of anybody who was allowed to teach without a waiver at a school that was not meeting the racial goals of the consent decree. He also was unaware of any white teacher who had ever obtained such a waiver. On these facts, we hold that Greer failed to demonstrate that the Board treated him differently from other similarly situated employees of another race.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Kocoras, J., Coffey, J.

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