Three years ago, the Chicago Park District banned Bronzeville resident N’Dana Carter from the South Shore Cultural Center for allegedly attacking an art instructor. But no police report was filed, and Carter was never given an interview, or even a hearing.
Three days a week, N’Dana Carter takes two buses to get to a ceramics class at Lincoln Park Cultural Center on the North Side. The trip takes two hours each way from her home in Bronzeville. After spending four hours on the road and attending the two-and-a-half-hour class, Carter gets home late in the evening, limping with her cane.
Three years ago, Carter didn’t have to travel so far. She took a similar class at the South Shore Cultural Center in South Shore. That trip required Carter to ride one bus for a 45-minute journey. At the South Shore Cultural Center, Carter enjoyed the convenience and financial advantage of taking the class there until March 3, 2021.
On that Wednesday afternoon, Carter was accused of attacking Zena Sakowski, an art instructor, in her classroom. Park District officials not only expelled Carter from the class but banned her from the facility. Despite repeated requests, she was never given a hearing or even an interview explaining the decision to ban her. And questions remain as to why no police report was filed after Sakowski was injured during the alleged attack.
Two witnesses to the alleged attack gave different accounts than Sakowski’s report. Park officials maintain Carter wasn’t banned from the facility, but a video recording of the board meeting suggests otherwise. Park District officials aren’t releasing much information that sheds light on the alleged attack.
The incident has left Carter, 69, struggling mentally and emotionally.
A stroke survivor, years following her expulsion she continues to visit therapists to help her heal from the allegations and ban, which she said damaged her hopes of establishing a business making and selling porcelain doorknob plates.
Carter says the South Shore Cultural Center, with its equipment, supplies and space, was the best and only park facility that allowed her to make high quality doorknob plates good enough to sell to consumers. Now, Carter says she must travel over nine miles by bus to make the product and pay hundreds of dollars to fire them in a kiln.
“It’s been a very difficult three years for me and no one from the Park District has spoken and listened to me about the allegations. It hurts,” Carter told the Crusader.
Four years ago, Carter began walking with a cane after she experienced intense pain in both legs. Today, Carter walks slowly and with a limp. Since 2010, Carter had been taking ceramic classes at the South Shore Cultural Center and other locations to help cope with stress and severe depression.
In ceramics class, Carter mastered the craft of using clay to create doorknob plates, decorative objects that fit around doorknobs. As part of the process, the ceramics class at the South Shore Cultural Center provided Carter with glazes and underglazes for her porcelain plates. The class included the final step, firing the doorknob plates in the kiln, a special oven that turns clay to ceramic glass.

Things were going smoothly in Carter’s ceramics class in 2020 until it was canceled because of the pandemic. Classes resumed in 2021. On March 3, 2021, Carter showed up during class. What happened then remains in dispute.
The Crusader requested all documents from Carter’s case under the Freedom of Information Act for this story. After granting the Chicago Park District four extensions, officials sent just three heavily redacted documents. They included two employee incident reports and one patron incident report. There are no documents that show or suggest Carter was given a hearing before being banned from the South Shore Cultural Center.
Unable to fully understand the situation from the redacted reports, the Crusader obtained the same reports with fewer redactions from another source. The Crusader also obtained copies of witness statements, letters from Carter to Park District officials, and other outlets’ FOIA requests.
According to the security incident report, Sakowski, the art instructor, on March 3, 2021, said Carter entered her classroom and accused her of stealing several items Carter had made. Sakowski and two of her students, Margaret Evan-Robinson and Trinette Hunter said Carter appeared to “have some mental issues. It has been requested that she is no longer allowed to enter the building. The students that were present stated that she had an intimidating demeanor.”
In the patron and incident report, Evan-Robinson and Hunter said Carter “refused to leave after accusing Zena Sakowski of stealing. She stated she would be back 3/9/2021 to get her items.”
In Evan-Robinson and Hunter’s witness statements, both said they were cleaning up after class when Carter entered the classroom and confronted Sakowski. Both said Carter was acting “inappropriately.” One of them said Carter seemed “unstable” and felt that Sakowski was “in danger.”
The other witness said Carter had an “imposing presence.”

One report alleges Carter verbally attacked Sakowski. But at the top of Sakowski’s employee incident report, it says “CANNOT BE COMPLETED BY THE INJURED EMPLOYEE,” meaning Sakowski could not complete the report herself because of the injuries she suffered during the alleged attack.
The section that describes the injury is redacted or blacked out. So is the section that shows an entire diagram of a body where applicants circle to indicate the location of their injury (ies).
The most serious question in Carter’s case is why a police report wasn’t filed if Sakowski was attacked and too injured to complete her incident report.
Carter sent three FOIA requests and did not find a police report among her documents. Park District officials did not provide one to the Crusader and there is none on file with the Chicago Police Department.
At the entrance of the South Shore Cultural Center is a police and horse facility. With police officials nearby, the question is why weren’t they summoned to the scene of where the alleged attack occurred?
On March 9, 2021, nearly a week after the alleged attack occurred, Carter said she received “a very disturbing” phone call from Andrea Adams, director of the South Shore Cultural Center.
“She concluded that I would receive a lifetime expulsion from all South Shore Cultural Center classes, workshops, events and properties as a result of my [alleged] violent actions.”
Carter said she never received documents stating she was banned.
On August 27, 2021, Carter said Adams called her to tell her that Adams would be returning her enrollment fee and that she couldn’t take classes at the South Shore Cultural Center anymore. Carter said Adams didn’t tell her why when she asked her.
During that same conversation, Carter said she asked Adams about their phone conversation on March 9 when Adams allegedly told Carter she was banned from the facility. Carter said Adams told her she knew nothing of the conversation.
“I told her I had read the Park District’s Code of Conduct and asked her why I was given such a harsh, quick and unfair determination (ban),” Carter said.
“I told her I couldn’t understand why I was expelled for life without an investigation and an interview. I further responded that there is no mention or directive given which calls for the lifetime expulsion of a patron in the Code of Conduct and that their decision to ban me was against the Park District Code of Conduct.”
Seeking answers, Carter filed a complaint with the Park District’s Inspector General’s Office. In addition to Director Adams, she sent letters to several Park District officials. They included Chicago Park District Attorney Timothy King, Chicago Park District Director Andre Taylor and Chicago Park District President Avis LaVelle. Carter said none of them spoke to her and she was never granted a hearing per park district policy.
Carter said Taylor “disrespected her” during several phone calls, where she was called a “liar” and refused to interview her to get her side of the story.
Carter says she was not even present on March 3, 2021, when the attack is alleged to have occurred. According to Carter, in late February 2021, after a break from the pandemic, Carter returned to Sakowski’s classroom to pick up doorknob plates she left with Sakowski in September when classes were shut down because of the pandemic.
Carter’s doorknob plates had not been fired in the kiln. Careful not to disturb the class, Carter said she spoke quietly and asked Sakowski what happened to the missing bubble wrap and the cardboard box that contained Carter’s ceramic butterflies. Carter said Sakowski answered “I don’t know anything about them.”
Carter then said Sakowski said in a loud voice, “No one has stolen anything.” Carter said Sakowski said in the same voice “You are free to look around.”
Carter said she looked through packing materials and didn’t find the bubble wrap nor the cardboard box. Carter said she did find the butterflies and left the classroom without doing anything to Sakowski. But after Carter registered for another ceramics class for the spring term, Adams called her to tell her about the alleged attack and that she is permanently banned from the South Shore Cultural Center.
The Crusader emailed the Park District several questions about Carter’s case and asked Park District Spokesperson Michele Lemons whether there was a police report of the incident. She did not answer any questions, including the one about the police report.
Lemons did release this statement:
“The Chicago Park District provides welcoming spaces for everyone where respect, acceptance and kindness are standard practice. The District’s Facilities User Code of Conduct outlines behaviors and actions that violate park policy and the process by which the district evaluates these actions and determines the appropriate consequence.
Upon further review of the 2021 incident involving N’Dana Carter, there is no documentation to indicate the patron was formally banned from the park or any other Park District facility. The district has reached out to Ms. Carter to further clarify any misunderstanding about the perceived ban.”
Lemons also said the District is reviewing its Code of Conduct policy in light of Carter’s case.
The Crusader reviewed the Chicago Park District Code of Conduct, which involves offenses in three categories.
A category two offense involves verbally assaulting or pushing and kicking a patron or staff member. But as with the other categories, there’s no mention of the Park District banning an individual for violating its Code of Conduct.
While investigating this story, Carter said she received a phone call from Adams, the director of the South Shore Cultural Center.
She told me, “You were never banned [from the South Shore Cultural Center]. You are always welcomed.”

But in an online video recording of an April 14, 2021 Park District Board of Commissioners meeting, there’s a reference to Carter being banned when King, the District’s attorney says, “Basically, the ban involves the threatening of several park employees that reported subjectively feeling threatened, intimidated and harassed by a particular patron; and there was a report made accordingly and we followed our recommended Code of Conduct. So, I know Risk Management is going to have a follow-up meeting on-site and they’re in the process of putting that together.
“This is very much an ongoing matter and President LaVelle, I’ll forward the information to your chief of staff,” said King.
Carter, who attended that meeting then said, “I’m concerned. No one has contacted me. I have no idea what happened.”
LaVelle then replied, “I think this process needs to be unraveled. And I think you are entitled to some information and to get a real honest perspective on what actually happened.”
Then King said, “I just learned about this this morning. Like I said, there’s due process going on and certainly the patron would have the opportunity to have her presence felt.”
Carter said that opportunity never came despite repeated requests for information from King, LaVelle and Adams.
With no answers, Carter stayed away from the South Shore Culture Center for the next three years. She rides the Number 3 and Number 151 buses to get to the Lincoln Park Cultural Center on the North Side to take her 5:30 p.m. class three days a week. With fall around the corner, it will be dark by the time her two-and-a-half-hour class is done and 10:30 p.m. before she gets home.
Carter said the South Shore Cultural Center doesn’t offer ceramics classes anymore and the one at Lincoln Park Cultural Center is the closest one. She said the small class space and the lower quality equipment doesn’t compare to the ceramic class she used to take at the South Shore Cultural Center before being expelled over the alleged attack.
Three years after the incident, Carter’s dream of having a doorknob plates business remains uncertain.
The South Shore Cultural Center doesn’t offer the class anymore and it was the only facility that Carter said met her business needs. She said the $45 class fee for seniors made it affordable for her. She said making the product at the South Shore Cultural Center would have cost her $1,500 instead of the $60,000 it would cost to produce the porcelain doorknob plates herself.
“It was really the only public facility equipped to accomplish what I had to do,”Carter said.”