Lake in the Hills parks board member target of ‘racial profiling’ Facebook post, police call following park inspection

Sai Sivakumar has lived in Lake in the Hills for 25 years.

She is involved in the community as a member of the Parks and Recreation Board, and also is a court-appointed advocate for child abuse and neglect victims as a part of CASA McHenry County.

When Sivakumar thinks of home, she thinks of Lake in the Hills, she said Thursday evening at a Parks and Recreation Board meeting.

This is why, Sivakumar, who is of Indian descent, said she felt “destroyed” after being racially profiled while inspecting a park, which board members do monthly inspections as a part of their regular duties.

Last Sunday, while going on an inspection, Sivakumar was at a park when she saw a woman with her grandchild staring at her and her husband.

Sivakumar went up to the woman, with her Parks and Recreation board member badge on, and introduced herself as a board member.

The woman asked Sivakumar what she was doing there. When Sivakumar said she was there to check the park out and make sure its equipment was safe, the woman took the child and left.

The woman then posted a status in a local Facebook group, saying she saw a couple at the park of Indian descent and she suspected them of being sex traffickers, Sivakumar recounted during Thursday’s meeting. Some of the comments posted in response said things like “you cannot trust brown-skinned people” and “this is why you should conceal carry when you go to a park.”

The same woman called the police on Sivakumar on Monday, Sivakumar said.

The woman’s post later was taken down by an administrator of the Facebook page, at the request of Parks and Recreation Board chairwoman Diane Tredore.

But the damage, for Sivakumar, was already done. The Facebook post had been shared 25 times.

Some of Sivakumar’s friends reached out to her after the incident.

“I’ve told them how much racism you face when you look different from the norm,” Sivakumar said. “I just want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“I don’t want to be in any kind of danger,” Sivakumar said. “So whatever it takes, I think all of us need to be kept safe.”

After Sivakumar recounted her story, her fellow Parks and Recreation Board members visibly were shaken.

A couple members of the Parks and Recreation Board offered to walk with Sivakumar during future parks inspections to make sure she felt safe, and board members discussed ways of increasing their visibility in the community so people know who they are and why they are at the parks.

Several members thanked Sivakumar for what she has accomplished on the board.

Recreation Superintendent Kim Buscemi said after the meeting that the Parks and Recreation Board, which is an advisory, appointed board, have name badges, and said she thinks it would be a good idea to share publicly, such as on social media or the village’s website, what the board is all about and what board members do.

Tredore also addressed the incident at the beginning of Thursday meeting, saying some “negative” and “uncalled for” comments were made regarding a member after a recent park inspection.

“One of the things we always do when we visit parks, and we make sure all of us do this, is we introduce ourselves if there are adults there, explain that we are with Parks and Rec, and that we are inspecting the parks, which is what we normally do during the spring and summer months,” Tredore said

Inspecting parks is part of the board’s job, Tredore said.

“Hopefully, this negativity will stop, and we won’t have any more issues,” Tredore said.