U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall said a jury should decide whether Kennedy-King College discriminated against Thomas Rasheed in 2001.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall rejected a bid by the City Colleges of Chicago to dismiss the case, saying a jury should decide whether Kennedy-King College discriminated against Thomas Rasheed in 2001.
In 2008, the college hired Rasheed for a full-time position in what was then its Graphic Arts Department, the decision said. He had more than 20 years of professional experience and previously taught as an adjunct or tenured faculty member at two other colleges.
He created a new curriculum and claims to have dramatically increased student enrollment in the program.
In December 2009, a high-level administrator asked Rasheed to give a presentation about his Islamic faith at a luncheon where employees could highlight their holiday traditions, Kendall said. “Rasheed agreed and wore tradition Islamic garb, read from the Koran in Arabic, and discussed how Islam and Christianity had many things in common.”
After the event, however, the suit claims, his formerly cordial relationship with the college’s interim president deteriorated.
The decision said Rasheed was occasionally late for classes, and an administrator admonished him for taking off a personal day and letting his teaching assistant fill in. Several other conflicts arose during that academic year.
