PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Two separate incidents of a racist school kids group-chat and a board member criticizing her colleagues while canvassing caused heated debate at the Peoria Public Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday.
The first incident involved Peoria Township Supervisor LaTrina Leary, a Black woman. She said her son, who goes to Reservoir Gifted School, had received death threats and racist messages from other students in a group chat.
While overwhelmed with emotions, Leary described the messages. She said when her son wrote in the group chat “this chat is dead,” another student responded with “soon you will be too.”
“Another student said, ooh, I want to be there, they wanted to witness the unaliving on my son,” she said. “Another student posted a picture of a monkey.”
Leary said the students in the group chat would post pictures of her face, her house and even the coordinates of said house.
Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said she had talked to the school’s principal, parents and others about the incident.
However, Board Member Martha Ross asked Kherat if there was a resolution to the issue. During a conversation between the two, Leary rushed to the podium to say the issue wasn’t resolved, and that her son was called a “n***** by 20 kids.”
Kherat said she would follow-up on the incident.
That wasn’t the end of the conflicts at the table, as some board members wanted to show a video of Board Member Christina Rosa talking poorly of her colleagues.
While this was protested by Board Member Brenda Wilson, the recording was still played as it was put on the agenda by the board president.
The video showed a ring camera recording of Rose canvassing on behalf of Doug Shannon, who’s running for Board Members Larry Ivory’s open district 3 seat in 2026.
When the ring camera’s homeowner told Rose he’ll be voting for the opposing candidate, Sarah Velez Howard, she said her current board members have not been acting in good faith.
“The people who want her to run against Doug just want to keep their four votes so they can keep giving their friends money,” said Rose in the video.
The four votes were from four of the board’s five Black members. This left some members furious. Ross said what Rose did was grounds for defamation.
“It’s character assassination. It’s unprofessional. It’s absolutely not true and it’s absolutely racist,” she said.
Rose would give a statement about how she felt about the recent vote to approve From the Heart as the superintendent search firm on a hotly contested 4-3 vote.
“This superintendent search process has not gone smoothly so far, and many people have concerns about it yielding a high-quality candidate,” she said. “I request that we reopen the process for a new superintendent search firm.”
In other items, the board unanimously approved to buy the CEIA OpenGate Ai Weapons Detection metal detectors with no discussion.
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board member, Peoria Public Schools, group chat, Supervisor LaTrina Leary, Martha Ross, board president, Reservoir Gifted School
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