BLOOM TOWNSHIP | Suburban Cook County Regional Superintendent Charles Flowers said he is trying to set up a hearing to determine whether the former principal of Sandridge Elementary School should have his education credentials suspended.

Flowers is now named in a lawsuit filed by Sandridge Elementary District 172 asking a court to order him to immediately suspend former Principal Leroy Coleman's teaching and administrative certificates or conduct a hearing on the matter.

"I've already made a request for a hearing," Flowers told The Times on Nov. 2, adding he called Coleman's lawyer, Ray Wigell, the day before and was waiting to hear back from him.

Repeated attempts to reach Flowers this week were not successful.

Phone calls to Wigell were not returned Friday.

District 172 Superintendent John Sawyer III said on Friday when he spoke with Flowers earlier this week, he was told the necessary parties were in the process of setting a hearing date.

On Thursday, the district also filed a lawsuit against Coleman for his pay between December and May, and the Illinois Teachers Retirement System for more than $100,000 in early retirement penalties charged to the district after Coleman opted for early retirement.

The lawsuit accuses Coleman of breach of duty and breach of contract when he had sex with subordinate employees during the school day.

Coleman was secretly taped engaging in sex acts with teacher Janet Lofton in his office at school during various times and dates in December and January.

The unauthorized recording also showed Coleman hugging and touching substitute teacher/aide Anjayla Reed on a separate occasion.

Coleman, Lofton and Reed resigned their positions in April after copies of the DVD recording were anonymously sent to teachers, parents, The Times, and former Regional Superintendent Robert Ingraffia.

The lawsuit maintains Coleman "not only failed to advocate for a positive learning culture, his conduct taught every Sandridge student that school is a place for organizing and consummating sex acts more than for studying and learning academic material."

Meanwhile, Sandridge School Board Secretary Kevin Pisano said he wants Coleman to be held accountable "for what he did" and a hearing held on the suspension of his certificate.

Ingraffia took steps to set hearing dates for both Coleman and Lofton regarding their certificates and subsequently suspended Lofton's certificate for one year after she failed to respond. He was unable to establish a hearing date for Coleman by the time Ingraffia left office in June.

He declined to comment on why no hearing has been set since Flowers took over as regional superintendent.