An employee of the Chicago Police Department goose-stepped across a high school stage and saluted while wearing a Nazi-like uniform, according to a report released Wednesday by the city’s top watchdog.
A source said the employee was a student at Jones College Prep and was part of the police department’s cadet program, which employs young people pursuing a career in law enforcement.
The cadet, who was a minor at the time, resigned before the inspector general’s office could push for dismissal, according to its most recent quarterly report. The police department has indicated that it would work to have the former cadet placed on the city’s do-not-hire list.
“The uniform, march, and salute created the impression that the individual was evoking Nazi Germany,” the inspector general’s office found.
The controversial incident happened during a Halloween costume contest at Jones in 2022, prompting outrage and the removal of the school’s then-principal, Joseph Powers. He eventually retired.
The cadet’s mother, Deborah Pascua, works for the police department as a compliance officer, city records show. She faces dismissal for showing other police employees a photograph of her child wearing the uniform.
The inspector general’s office said only that “a CPD employee created an offensive work environment when they showed other employees in the workplace a photo of the above-described individual wearing the German military uniform, which was reasonably perceived to be a Nazi uniform.” Pascua was found to have broken department rules, including for providing a false statement to the inspector general’s office.
The police department has agreed with recommendations to fire Pascua and place her on the do-not-hire list, the inspector general’s office said. A senior police employee was also reprimanded for failing “to appropriately report the misconduct.”
Pascua earns an annual salary of $109,464, city records show. A retired police veteran, she now works in a civilian role in the Office of Equity and Engagement, a police spokesperson said.
She didn’t respond to a request for comment.