A woman is suing Chicago’s school district, alleging that her son was sexually abused by two of his kindergarten classmates last year and that school officials didn’t do enough to stop it, even after learning of the abuse.
The mother of the unidentified Wendell Smith Elementary School student filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, the Chicago Sun-Times reported (http://bit.ly/1dtj703 ). It names Chicago Public Schools and the Board of Education as defendants.
In her lawsuit, the woman says the abuse started in January 2014. She says the boys’ teacher sometimes let students leave the classroom without supervision to use a bathroom meant for older children. She says a school worker told the principal that he had heard her son and another boy fighting, and that when he went to check on them, the boys were naked from the waist down.
The woman says she called the principal the next day and told her that her son had said the other boy had demanded sexual acts from him. The principal called in the boys’ parents to discuss the incident and later informed the district and board officials.
The woman contends that even though her son’s teacher was told of the alleged abuse, the teacher let her son and the other boy go to the same bathroom without supervision on at least two more occasions, and that each time the other boy sexually abused her son. She says the other boy’s cousin, who was in the same kindergarten class, also sexually abused her son on at least one occasion.
The lawsuit says the school never told other parents that their kindergarteners were being allowed to use the older kids’ bathroom without supervision, or of the alleged danger posed by the boys who abused her son. She says the boys’ teacher even made fun of her son in front of his classmates and other parents, saying he does “nasty things” in the bathroom with other boys.
The woman’s lawsuit accuses CPS and the school board of negligence and of violating her son’s right to not be harassed.
CPS officials said they haven’t reviewed the lawsuit and don’t comment on pending litigation. They said the district’s top priority is the safety and well-being of its students.
Source: The AP
Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/
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