Benuzzi v. Chicago Bd. of Educ., No. 10-3021 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff was one of the first female custodians hired by the Chicago Public Schools in 1981 and, in 2004, qualified to oversee custodial operations at large school buildings. She clashed with her new boss, who declined requests to work the morning shift and suspended plaintiff without pay three times. Plaintiff filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging gender, race, age, and disability discrimination and retaliation. When she received her right-to-sue letter, she sued her boss and the Board of Education. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of defendants. The Seventh Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part, holding that there were material issues of fact for trial. Defendants offered facially nondiscriminatory reasons for the three suspensions, the only relevant employment decisions for purposes of the discrimination claim. A reasonable jury would not have found the reasons pretextual. With respect to a retaliation claim, a notice of disciplinary action and hours restriction could be viewed as adverse employment actions and those actions were close in time to plaintiff's EEOC deposition.
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