A former Palatine High School security employee says she was fired this year after she shared surveillance footage showing a staff member shoving a student into a metal door, and now she is suing the school district that let her go. Amy Stilling Tanner, who worked for Township High School District 211 for more than three years and brought 31 years of law-enforcement experience to the job, claims her April dismissal was retaliation for reporting what she believed was a child being physically abused on campus.
Tanner's lawsuit, filed against the district, alleges she was fired for revealing a co-worker's violent treatment of a student, according to the Chicago Tribune. She says she received a partial copy of a security video from a school resource officer documenting a March incident in a hallway at Palatine High School, and that the footage led her to raise alarms rather than stay quiet. Tanner is represented by attorney Kenneth C. Apicella, a partner at DGAA Law.
What the Video Allegedly Showed
According to the Tribune's reporting, the footage depicted students engaged in horseplay that escalated into two 15-year-olds tussling and laughing, before they disengaged when a staff member approached. From there, the video allegedly showed the staff member grabbing a Black student from behind, spinning him around by his shirt, and repeatedly shoving him into a metal roll-down concession-stand door.
Tanner has acknowledged sharing the video with four other district employees, and the district has accused her of distributing the footage to people not involved in the investigation of the March incident, per the same Tribune account. District 211 suspended her on April 2, alleging she violated employee conduct policies, and the school board dismissed her two weeks later. Tanner says she was never given the specific policies she was accused of breaking.
Board Fired the Employee Shown in the Video
District 211's Board of Education voted unanimously on April 16, 2026, to terminate the employee depicted in the video. The vote came just two weeks after Tanner's own suspension.
Tanner's lawsuit argues that the district's stated reasons for her termination were pretext, and that she was actually terminated for speaking out about a district employee's assault and battery of a child, the Tribune reports. Her attorney, Apicella, told the outlet that people cannot be fired for reporting illegal, unethical or improper conduct that violates an important public policy, adding that the filing speaks for itself.
The Legal Standard at Stake
Under the Illinois Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, all public school personnel are designated mandatory reporters required to immediately notify the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services whenever they have reasonable cause to suspect physical abuse involving a minor, per the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and failing to comply can carry criminal penalties.
District 211 is the largest high school district in Illinois, serving nearly 12,000 students across five comprehensive high schools and two alternative education centers in communities including Palatine, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Arlington Heights, according to Township High School District 211.
District Response and Damages Sought
District officials acknowledged awareness of the lawsuit in a statement but declined to comment on the pending litigation, the Tribune reported. Tanner is asking the court for past and future lost compensation and benefits, emotional-distress damages, additional compensatory and punitive damages, and legal fees.
The case lands amid broader scrutiny of how District 211 handles staff discipline and disclosure. At a December 2025 school board meeting, parents raised concerns about transparency and pushed for policy changes requiring mandatory family notifications whenever staff face suspension or termination for misconduct, following unrelated coach suspension allegations, according to Citizen Portal's coverage of board records.
