Some of life’s most important lessons aren’t learned in a classroom. It’s too bad that 14 kids who graduated from Brown Elementary School in June are learning entirely the wrong one from a lawsuit their parents filed this week on their behalf.
The suit claims the students’ civil rights were violated when they were not allowed aboard a Chicago cruise ship for a graduation luncheon. A larger group from predominantly Hispanic Logandale Middle School was already on board the boat, and the Logandale principal told the boat’s operator there would be gang trouble if the students from Brown, who are African-American, were allowed on the cruise.
The incident was unfortunate, and the disappointed kids–41 in all–had a right to be angry. But they don’t have a right to more than $1 million each, which the suit seeks, or to any financial windfall.
Luis Molina, Logandale’s principal, was clearly out of line. In July, the Chicago school board suspended him–and rightly so–for 10 days for “conduct unbecoming a principal.”
The Spirit of Chicago cruise ship operators, who were placed in a difficult position by Molina’s warning, initially suggested the Brown students occupy an outdoor deck of the boat or sail on another, smaller vessel, which they declined. The operators wound up giving the kids refunds, buying them lunch at Navy Pier and treating them to Ferris wheel rides.
There is nothing to indicate that the children were kept off the boat because of their race, as the suit claims. The ship’s manager made a decision based on Molina’s assertion that putting the two groups together could result in violence, which on a boat full of kids might well have led to catastrophe.
The Spirit of Chicago Corp. has tried to make amends by agreeing to be a corporate partner with Brown, helping the school with fund-raising and financial support. But Samuel Greenberg, the lawyer representing the students and their parents, says that won’t stand in the way of the suit, which names the Spirit of Chicago, its manager, the Chicago School Board and Molina as defendants.
It’s sad to see parents put greed before the best interests of their children. Filing lawsuits for millions in hopes of getting thousands, using the issue of race in a gratuitous manner and looking for a buck behind every disappointment–what kind of behavior is that? Not the kind that sets a sound example for kids.
