Overview
- Video from the Sept. 4 varsity football game showed Lincoln‑Way East students making monkey gestures and using racial slurs toward Homewood‑Flossmoor attendees, footage that triggered an internal discipline review.
- Superintendent Scott Tingley said a multi‑angle inquiry that included interviews and video review led administrators to recommend expulsions, but the students' parents chose voluntary withdrawal instead of pursuing that process.
- The Lincoln‑Way board voted unanimously Thursday to accept the students' withdrawals, a move the district says applied to six identified students and ends the local expulsion proceedings.
- A separate allegation from a Sept. 5 girls cross‑country meet is under formal review by the Illinois High School Association, and the district has denied that characterization while saying it is cooperating with the IHSA.
- District leaders have apologized, offered counseling and reached out to inclusion groups, and the unresolved IHSA and possible legal reviews could still lead to athletic discipline or other consequences beyond the withdrawals.