Highland Park fires rec director who’s suffering from mass shooting-induced PTSD

CHICAGO — A recreation director in Highland Park, Ill., who says he suffered psychological trauma following a mass shooting at the suburban city’s 2022 Fourth of July parade, has been fired, according to interviews and city records reviewed by Raw Story.

On Dec. 27, Highland Park officials terminated Chris Maliszewski, 41, who says he is actively being treated for depression, anxiety, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the massacre, during which seven people died and at least 48 were injured. Maliszewski is in the midst of a workers’ compensation case initiated while he was on leave from his city job through the Family and Medical Leave Act.

RELATED ARTICLE: 'Chaos': Fired Highland Park rec director details trauma of July 4 mass shooting

A Highland Park official confirmed to Raw Story that Maliszewski, who was the city’s assistant director of recreation at the time of the 2022 parade and participated in locating and rescuing survivors, is no longer an employee, and his last date of employment was Dec. 27.

“We will not be able to provide any answers to questions regarding individuals’ health or workers compensation claims,” said Liz Gogola, director of communications and marketing.

The termination letter and separation agreement sent to Maliszewski, and shared with Raw Story, offered him two months’ severance pay, coverage of COBRA health insurance premiums through the end of February and a waiver for $2,186.37 owed for health insurance premiums.

“The Park District is not able to grant you an indefinite leave of absence and, therefore, is ending your employment,” said the Dec. 27 letter from Laurel Hall, director of human resources and workforce development. “The Park District is proceeding with posting the vacancy for the new Assistant Director position to prevent undue burden on the Park District operations and staff.”

A Dec. 7 letter from Hall informed Maliszewski of a reorganization where a second director of recreation, Nick Baird, would become the sole director. They offered Maliszewski the new assistant director of recreation position “if you are able to return to work soon (with or without reasonable accommodations).”

“I've offered the commissioners, many times over, an opportunity to meet in person, so they can hear what's happening, and they've just ghosted me,” said Maliszewski, whose firing has not previously been reported publicly.

None of the Park District’s five commissioners responded to Raw Story’s calls.

“It's the worst day of my life, and I think about it every day,” he said of July 4, 2022.

Panic attack on the job

Maliszewski said he returned to work immediately after the shooting and worked for 10 months — until he had a breakdown on April 4, 2023, when it was reported that a student brought a gun to Highland Park High School.

In response, Maliszewski said all government buildings, including the Park District, locked down.

“I was leading a portion of the lockdown and then after 90 minutes or so when it got lifted, for the first time I had a panic attack in public,” he said.

Maliszewski said he had two more panic attacks that night but went to work the next day, a Wednesday. It wasn't until that Friday that he called in sick, and he did so the following Monday as well.

Chris Maliszewski in May 2022 at a Pearl Jam concert in Oakland, Calif. (Provided by Chris Maliszewski)

Maliszewski’s termination letter said his Family and Medical Leave began on April 13, 2023, and lasted until July 5, 2023, “at which point you exhausted your 12 weeks of job-protected FML,” the letter said.

Maliszewski said he used his 57 personal-time-off days he had built up since he started working at the Park District nearly 10 years before. He said he began his employment as a part-time employee in 2014.

As his PTO was running out, Maliszewski recalls telling his therapist he was concerned about losing his paycheck, and he said she told him that his leave should be a workers’ comp issue.

“I went to my employer the next day, and I said, ‘hey, I gotta ask you why wasn't I guided [on the] workers’ comp process because now, it's really confusing of how this is being handled,” Maliszewski said. “And right then and there, I’m telling you, the switch flipped, and instead of being supportive and being there for my care and what I needed, I now became a liability and a risk.”

Maliszewski received an email from Hall on July 15 indicating he would need to start paying $870.46 per month for his health insurance premiums via personal check since there would no longer be a paycheck deduction since he was on unpaid leave.

Maliszewski’s termination letter, signed by Hall, lays out a timeline of Maliszewski’s leave.

“Between July 31, 2023, and August 28, 2023, you temporarily returned to work, and the District accommodated you with a reduced schedule and by temporarily not requiring you to perform certain essential job duties based on your medical restrictions,” the letter said.

Maliszewski confirmed his month-long return and said he was “blindsided” when he learned he was going to become an hourly employee and was no longer welcomed to department leader meetings.

Maliszewski said his first day back included a meeting in the multipurpose room where debriefing sessions occurred on July 5, 2022 — the day after the mass shooting. This was triggering, Maliszewski said.

“All I think about is who was sitting there? Who was sitting there? What did they say? What story did they tell?” said Maliszewki, who was reminded of the dozens who died or were wounded and “who the hell knows how many more are hurt mentally.”

Hall’s letter continues, “On August 29, 2023, you went off work again on approved non-FML leave, and the District has extended your leave multiples times, in repeated increments (demonstrating that the need for leave is indefinite at this point).”

A return, then a firing

Maliszewski said his plan was to return on October 2 after another month of leave. But his “psychiatrist was not willing to clear me only because we didn't know what the park district was going to put on me, if anything different.

“He said we should know what environment you're going back into before you go back, and I agreed,” Maliszewski said.

Maliszewski ultimately told Highland Park officials he would be returning on Oct. 9. But on Oct. 2 he heard from his worker’s comp attorney that he was being offered a severance. His lawyer told him to “let me handle it from here,” and “there's no need to communicate with them anymore,” Maliszewski said.

“That's when my psychiatrist, even though I was still seeing him during that period — we stopped sending letters because they tried to get rid of me,” Maliszewski said.

The letter from Hall confirmed the Oct. 2 return to work date and the receipt of a medical note confirming the Oct. 9 extension.

“You did not return to work on October 9, 2023, or provide a note updating your estimated return to work for more than another two months,” the letter said.

On Dec. 7, the Park District’s understanding was Maliszewski was requesting “indefinite leave,” Hall wrote in the termination letter.

A medical update was requested by Dec. 14. Two notes were sent Dec. 7 and Dec. 15 but did not have an estimated return to work date, the termination letter said.

“The letter also expressly told you that if we do not hear from you and/or receive updated medical information, the Park District would determine your employment status based on the information it has available,” Hall wrote.

Despite the termination, Maliszewski’s worker’s compensation case is still open, he said.

“While the Park District will not share comment on confidential personnel matters, specific employee health or medical information (including WC), or pending claims … it complied with workers’ compensation laws, and multiple employees sought and received workers’ compensation benefits,” said Liz Gogola, director of marketing and communications for the Park District, via email to Raw Story.

Michael Epstein, a New Jersey-based attorney at The Epstein Law Firm, P.A, who specializes in workers’ comp cases, says Maliszewski’s case is winnable — but not a sure thing.

“He has to for the workers compensation claim prove that he was injured while working and what that injury is in terms of permanency, and the fault of the city is really not relevant to his workers compensation claim,” he said after Raw Story asked him about Maliszewski’s situation.

Epstein said Maliszewski would need to prove that he “sustained emotional distress injuries” while working, but he acknowledged that “emotional distress claims are always very tricky, because they're not physical claims.”

“I think the employer should be sympathetic that when someone experiences a trauma like this, that they should be supportive and sympathetic to the employee and make sure that he or she gets the treatment that he or she needs,” Epstein said.

Agi Semrad, president and founder of The Balance Project and 15-year resident of Highland Park, said she met Maliszewski at fundraisers he organized for the Parks Foundation of Highland Park, and they developed a friendship.

Semrad, a mental health advocate and therapist, said she was saddened by Maliszewski’s firing “because I know how much Chris has been suffering and the toll that this traumatic day has taken on him.”

“It’s difficult to hear that and knowing how passionate he was about the Park District,” she said. “He really cared about the programs they offered and the students they supported with providing opportunities … his passion for his work and helping others was so strong, so yeah, it’s hard to learn he’s no longer there.”