Chicago Public Schools teacher Garrett McLinn is facing two felony counts of stalking after Mayor Lori Lightfoot told authorities McLinn “continued to show up in and around” the immediate area of her Logan Square home, at least four times over two days in late March, court records show.
The complaint states that after McLinn, 36, was asked multiple times to leave, he “continued to angrily make his concerns known,” regarding the need for the number of Chicago Police Department officers assigned for her protection.
When McLinn allegedly resisted arrest, one of the officers assigned Lightfoot’s security detail “executed an emergency takedown and emergency handcuffing,” according to a CPD arrest report. McLinn refused emergency medical services at the scene but was later transported from lockup to a hospital for pain in his right arm, the arrest report shows. McLinn was also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest, court records show.
In bond court Saturday afternoon, Judge Susana Ortiz set McLinn’s bond at $20,000, on the conditions of GPS monitoring, no further contact with Lightfoot and, if he owns any firearms, that he surrender them, a spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said. McLinn was released later that day after posting a deposit on his cash bond, according to court records.
The Tribune was not able to reach McLinn, a recent teacher and girls track and field coach at William Howard Taft High School, for comment Monday.
During Taft’s Local School Council meeting March 14, McLinn said he’d resigned from his job in February over the school’s handling of a girl athlete’s complaint of harassment by a boy on the track team.
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“I was looked at as the problem,” said McLinn, according to a video recording of the meeting. He said he’d escalated the girl’s complaint to the CPS Office of Student Protections, adding, “I should have also called the Police Department.” McLinn said he was being made to undergo a “fit for service process” as a result, and two track and field parents voiced their support for their child’s coach during the meeting.
A false report of a gun threat recently heightened security concerns at Taft, prompting a student walkout March 9, Principal Mark Grishaber said at the LSC meeting, although CPD investigators found, “There was no threat. There was never a threat,” the principal said.
There’s no indication from the court records related to McLinn’s arrest that the incident had any connection with school safety concerns.
Without naming McLinn, the administration recently sent parents and guardians a letter regarding a staffer who had been taken into custody for reasons unrelated to the school. “This individual has not been currently permitted to work at our school or enter any of our school buildings since earlier this school year, prior to this arrest,” the Taft administration wrote. “While we cannot provide further details for privacy reasons, please know that we are taking this situation extremely seriously.”
The mayor’s office released a statement: “No one, including any elected official, should have to experience threats of physical harm, regardless of their political ideology. I am grateful to the Chicago Police Department and state’s attorney’s office for their efforts to pursue justice in this incident.”
On Saturday, the Chicago Teachers Union tweeted, “No matter how high the political temperature gets, we do not condone any act of violence because we know these acts weaken our democracy.” The incident ”should push CPS to create a safety plan for every school in our great city,” the union added.
Chicago Tribune’s Megan Crepeau and Gregory Pratt contributed.
