Following an allegation that a student had sex while on a team trip to Detroit, Lincoln Park basketball coach Pat Gordon was suspended from Chicago Public Schools.
A few weeks later, in late January, CPS removed Lincoln Park interim principal John Thuet and assistant principal Michelle Brumfield and suspended the school’s boys basketball season until further notice, citing ‘‘the severity of the misconduct allegations involving the team.’’
Students staged a walkout in protest of the move, but CPS said the decision to remove the school leadership was “irreversible.” They said the allegations that led to the ouster of top administrators and the suspension of the remainder of the boys basketball season included multiple instances of sexual misconduct, retaliation against witnesses, lying to families and financial mismanagement of the athletics program.
Then, just days after Thuet and Brumfield were replaced by a new interim administrator, Judith Gibbs, Gibbs abruptly left after an allegation she had “improper contact” with a student when she grabbed his face in a school hallway — which was caught on video.