District 113 to pay teacher $200,000 to resolve lawsuit related to 2023 social media post

Details of Township High School District 113’s settlement agreement with one of its teachers are now public a week after the district’s School Board ratified the settlement.

The public school district will pay Deerfield High School teacher Britnee Kenyon more than $200,000 to resolve the suit she brought against district personnel two years ago. The suit centered on the response to Kenyon’s 2023 social media share concerning the Israel-Hamas War.

The D113 Board of Education voted 6-1 on Sept. 30 to approve the settlement agreement; though details of the settlement were not immediately made public by the district. The Record received the settlement documents following a public-records request.

Now that the agreement is signed, Kenyon must release all claims she brought against the D113 board, its former president and former human resources officer — claims including the board violated her First Amendment rights and falsely insinuated she was antisemitic. 

“Nothing in this Agreement constitutes an admission of wrongdoing by Kenyon or the Board Defendants,” the settlement states.

The board or its insurers must pay Kenyon $200,000, credit her with 42 days of sick leave and reimburse Kenyon $6,665 worth of fees she paid to a mediation service. The settlement otherwise leaves the parties to bear their own attorney fees and costs.

Kenyon is a tenured D113 employee who still teaches at Deerfield High School.

The settlement also requires Kenyon not join any other lawsuits against D113 based upon the released claims, and she must comply with directives set forth in a “Notice to Remedy” disciplinary measure that the board unanimously approved during their Sept. 30 meeting.

A letter the D113 board sent to Kenyon states that the notice to remedy was issued “as a result of unprofessional conduct.” 

Kenyon’s failure to comply with the directives established in a memorandum from D113’s Chief Human Resources Officer Kathryn Anderson “may result in further disciplinary action, up to and including your dismissal as a tenured teacher in this School District,” the letter states.

The Record filed a public records request for the social media posts on Kenyon’s personal Instagram account that led to then-D113 Human Resources Officer Thomas Krieger informing Kenyon on Dec. 14, 2023 she needed to attend a pre-disciplinary meeting.

That public records request returned three screenshots of Dec. 9, 2023, stories from Kenyon’s personal Instagram account. The stories appear to be reposts of quotes by Ibram X. Kendi, the author of “How to Be an Anti-Racist,” concerning the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.

“What the Israeli military is doing in Gaza is not only a crime against humanity. It is a crime against history. What is humanity without history? What is history without memory? What is is memory without the writer?” an excerpt of one Kendi quote said.

“Perhaps that is why antiracist Jews are joining with Palestinians and the rest of world to oppose all this carnage from October 7 in Israel to what has happened ever since in Gaza and the West Bank. Jews have experienced the horror of Holocaust, and the double horror right now of people inexplicably denying all that they have suffered,” an excerpt of another Kendi quote on Kenyon’s Instagram said.

D113 families received a letter on Dec. 14, 2023 signed by then-School Board President Daniel Struck , condemning the social media posts.

Krieger informed Kenyon, who is Jewish, she needed to attend the pre-disciplinary meeting the next day to discuss the Instagram stories.

Krieger later informed Kenyon she needed to attend a second predisciplinary meeting to discuss complaints the district received regarding her use of the social media app Snapchat and content visible on her Instagram account, court documents show. 

A subsequent written reprimand did not include “any specific finding regarding the topics,” district lawyers wrote. Kenyon’s lawyers said she was harassed online and had to take a mental health leave of absence.

D113 board member Alexander Brunk was the only board member who voted on Sept. 30 against the settlement. It was signed by Kenyon on Sept. 28 and by a representative of the board on Oct. 1. 

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