Lincoln-Way Board Member Quits

Lincoln-Way high school district board member Maureen Jagmin resigned Thursday night, days after a racially charged recording from her home phone was left with the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Discrimination on the part of our board, administration, faculty, staff or students will not be tolerated,” board President James Gast said at a special meeting Thursday evening at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox.

Jagmin’s resignation was announced at the meeting and formally accepted there by her colleagues. However, Gast said he still was not certain it was Jagmin on the recording.

The female caller in Sunday’s recording did not leave her name, but caller ID indicated it came from Jagmin’s home. Instead of hanging up, the caller spoke to someone with her, leaving that conversation on a reporter’s voice mail. The man she was speaking to referred to the woman as Maureen. The woman also referenced a family member by name. Jagmin has a family member by the same name.

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In the recording, the caller made demeaning remarks about black people in general and singled out three mostly black south suburban high schools — Rich Central, East and South — as failing because, the caller said, of “what’s in ‘em.”

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[Editor’s Note: For more on this story, click here.]