Do Not Hire List Unfairly Hits High School Football Star Coach
By Jim Vail
Freddie Lesser was coaching at Dunbar High School one of the state's top football teams when something completely crazy happened to him.
The crazy part was not that a man threw water on his car as he passed by on his way to practice in 2002. The crazy part was what happened after this incident that completely changed his life.
The award-winning graphic design high school teacher and offensive line coach did not think anything more of the incident until he arrived on the field and found the guy who hurled the water at him had showed up and was now threatening him.
There was another person who would prefer to remain unnamed who was one of Lesser's fellow coaches for the Dunbar High School Football. This coach did not like his colleague and good friend being threatened by someone who appeared to be intoxicated. His co-coach told the offender you can't threaten coaches and then he knocked him out.
After that the police were called. Freddie told Second City Teachers in a phone interview that he and his fellow coach who defended his colleague looked very similar with bald heads. The victim who had threatened Lesser told the police that he was assaulted, so the cops took both Lesser and the other coach to the police station.
The police released both men within an hour.
Lesser returned to the school parking lot to discover that his car had been set on fire. He told the Dunbar Principal Barbara Hall who did nothing about it. A few weeks later Lesser got a letter from the Chicago Board of Education informing him he was no longer employed as a Chicago Public School teacher. He was placed on the Do Not Hire List.
He would also go on trial for assault and battery.
The Criminal Circuit Court Trial lasted a couple of weeks and was also attended by the Hall of Fame Dunbar Head Football Coach Glen Johnson, who passed away a couple of years ago.
"I went to trial accused of battery or assault, and they said I beat up a guy 6'6" and 300 lbs. by a guy who is 5'10" and 200 lbs.," Lesser said.
Coach Johnson had to recuse himself during the hearing because he knew the Judge. So they got another judge, and within a few minutes the judge said this was all bull and he dismissed the case.
Once his criminal case was dismissed, Lesser's lawyer petitioned the court to expunge the arrest so that it would not be on his record.
Lesser did not know that he was placed on the DNH list until he went to look at his personnel file when he wanted to teach in Arizona in 2003. His fellow coach who did not work as a teacher at Dunbar like Lesser called him after he left and told him they were having a hearing scheduled at the Board of Ed because the victim/water assailant had filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Public Schools.
"I never knew about this hearing," Lesser said. "I was in Arizona. The Board of Ed thought I was running away. They didn't know I had another job and was transferred to Arizona. I couldn't make it to the hearing."
His defender told the hearing officer that Lesser had nothing to do with the incident. His fellow coach said he was the one who knocked out the guy, but it seemed the Board of Ed did not want to hear this. He told Lesser after the hearing that their body language told him that they were nonchalant about what he had told them and the Board probably thought it would be easier to pin the blame on Lesser because he was absent from the hearing.
Lesser said he believed the only reason the police got involved was because the third coach on the field that day was also a Chicago cop - Larry Stewart.
"He tried to protect me," Lesser said. "At the time Dunbar was the best team in the state, and I was the key to their success. I was the line coach. We were the team of the decade. Dunbar was well-known in football. Dunbar was the hub for recruitment ... (CPS) couldn't do anything to Jonathan or (co-coach Larry) Stewart because they didn't work for CPS. I bore the brunt because I was working for CPS."
As the years went by, Lesser went on with his life. He petitioned the Board of Ed to remove his DNH. His file was not on the district's computer system, so he sent them his paperwork, but the Board of Ed said they needed more information. He sent a letter to former CPS Chief Arne Duncan informing him about what had happened and that it was not fair. He included a letter from an investigator exonerating him along with 50 witnesses present when the incident took place. However, the Board never called any of the witnesses.
"They didn't do an in-depth investigation," Lesser said. "No one ever contacted me. They just wanted to sweep it under the rug because it would look bad for them."
Lesser just recently sent in his appeal to have his DNH removed. People can appeal once a year if they have been placed on the infamous Do Not Hire List. He got the following reply from the Office of Administrative Hearings (formerly Office of Employee Engagement):
"We are in receipt of your petition and it is still in queue to be reviewed by the Committee. When a decision is made, you will be notified via email soon. We appreciate your patience with this matter."
At the time of the incident Lesser was about to become a tenured teacher. Unfortunately, at the time he was still a probationary assigned teacher and did not have full union rights which would have included the ability to appeal his dismissal. He ended up replacing Nate Dixon as the graphic design teacher, who left to become a Chicago Teachers Union Field Representative.
"We knew the whole case was fabricated," he said.
Lesser did not let this miscarriage of justice for him at the Chicago Public Schools deter his career. He continued to teach at schools outside the district. He knows a lot about computers and he is a product of the Chicago Public Schools. He attended South Shore High School and he inspired his niece to become a teacher at Hyde Park High School today.
Lesser exemplifies the essence of a hard worker the Chicago Public Schools should be proud of. He used to work the night shift as a graphic designer at the old Chicago Tribune printing plant and then would come in the morning to coach at Dunbar. He would stay at the high school until 10 pm to review films as a championship coach.
Lesser was a linebacker at Illinois State University. He earlier worked as a graphic designer at the Chicago Park District, and his first supervisor was Arne Duncan. He also worked the night shift as security at the Hyatt Hotel at the McCormick Center and then head to nearby Dunbar at 3000 S. King Dr. to teach and coach.
Recently he earned his doctorate in educational leadership at North Central College. At the time of the incident he had been accepted into the prestigious program to be a National Board Certified Teacher.
"I got accepted into the Board certification program that a lot of people can't get in," he said. "But they didn't care. So instead of the certification because of the incident I got my Masters and PhD."
"Even though I had some rough times in my life, I didn't let the setbacks in CPS curtail my education. I just used that as a motivation."
He is currently working as a case investigator at the Cook County Department of Health.
Lesser is also an exemplary model for how someone could escape the hard life of drugs and gangs and become a model for students in this rough city. His brother is Herman Williams, one of the original members of the Black Stone Rangers. Black Stone leader Jeff Forte was his next door neighbor when he was little and Lesser used to beat up his brother all the time.
"We used to go on all those marches," he said. "There were thousands of people wearing red cams and black outfits, marching for equal rights and against police brutality."
His mother who was a nurse moved further south to 79th Street to avoid the gangs.
His fiancee is a police officer and many of his former football players became police officers. He had earlier applied to teach at Tilden High School but was told they can't hire him because of the DNH. He has also worked as a tutor at Malcolm X College.
Lesser was a star teacher at Dunbar. He was nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award for the best graphics class. His class went to the suburbs to compete at the Triton College graphics program contest and one person there told one of his students that it was the first time ever a Chicago public school student won. His student who won the design contest is currently working for Apple, and according to Lesser he still talks to this day about the contest he won back in 2001.
"We had 1,000 students who wanted to take my graphics design class," Lesser said. "They couldn't find anyone to take my position so they had to cancel the position and no more graphic design."
Lesser is also a part of the Woodlawn Project, where they interviewed him first at age 6 and they follow his life as he grows up. They just recently re-interviewed him on the phone.
"Not a day goes by that I don't think about something that happened," he said. "I got all the memories. I kept a lot of my work and the students' work. Even though I moved on, I haven't moved on. Something in my mind won't let it go."
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