Chicago City Wire

Abuse of students by Chicago Public School teachers outlined in an annual report include examples of shocking behavior.

According to the CPS Inspector General’s fiscal year 2022 report:  

A high school teacher exchanged about 4,000 messages with a student in two years including 400 on a single day. He asked her to keep secrets and he demeaned her appearance. He said his marriage was open and asked her if she had sex with another student.

He resigned.

A high school culture coordinator made a sexual comment to a student and other inappropriate comments to students. He phoned and texted them extensively and transported one to and from school.

The district pulled him from active duty.

A high school guard flirted with a student and said she hurt his feelings by dating another student and he didn’t know why she was still with him. Investigators found a pattern of discussing relationships, rumors, and bodies. 

The board terminated him. 

A substitute teacher at a middle school stood over female students, put his face close to theirs when speaking, and touched their shoulders and arms.

He retired. 

A high school teacher stood so close to a female student while she bent over a table that his pelvic area touched her buttocks. He approached her to give her a book so closely that his chest touched hers. He stood too close to another student who bent over to plug in a computer. 

The district terminated him. 

An elementary school teacher touched a student’s face and touched others on arms, shoulders, backs, and waists. The board initiated proceedings to dismiss him and the state board initiated proceedings to terminate his license. 

Both proceedings remained pending. 

A female assistant in an elementary school sat on a male student’s lap causing him to fall out of his chair. She sat on him on the floor and said she’d sit on his face the next time. She admitted it to an administrator but denied it to investigators. 

The board terminated her. 

A high school teacher inadvertently displayed pornography while sharing his screen with students. Investigators found no intent and the board gave him an improvement plan. The allegations unit substantiated two complaints about events in the past. 

A male elementary school teacher sexually touched a male student 11 years old in 1996 and continued through 1999. The teacher bought food and gifts for the boy’s family and spent a night in his bedroom having sex. He showed favoritism to boys and took them to Six Flags. 

He resigned. 

A high school teacher groped and kissed a student in his vehicle in 2001 and sexually abused a student in 2002 or 2003. He hosted students at his residence, took them to movies and games, had meals with them away from school, and drove them in his vehicle.

He resigned. 

In cases of termination, resignation, and retirement, the board placed “Do Not Hire” flags in personnel files. 

Three cases of sexual abuse involved employees of vendors. 

One sent a nude photo of himself to a student 19 years old and asked to walk her home and to join her when she babysat. 

One stuck out his tongue at two eighth grade girls, licked toward his nose, and looked into a bathroom they entered. 

One called a fourth grader sexy and made other comments about her appearance. 

The board barred them from working in the district. 

CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher also provided summaries of cases where conduct didn’t constitute sexual abuse but violated other policies. 

He wrote that grooming behavior doesn’t automatically constitute a violation.

“In fact, one of the reasons that makes grooming for sexual abuse so insidious is that the conduct may resemble the genuine concern that staff members have for the development of their students,” he wrote. 

Such cases ended with termination and resignation almost as often as cases involving sexual abuse.

Free lunch and other fraud  

Fletcher also summarized cases of employees who lied and cheated including four who fraudulently qualified their children for free or reduced price meals. 

The husband of an elementary school principal omitted her income on applications for public assistance. 

The board suspended the principal for 10 days. 

Fletcher wrote that for more than 10 years his office has investigated fraudulent qualification of staff’s children for free and reduced price lunches. 

He wrote that the number of eligible students not only factors into reimbursement for meals but also determines important funding streams for the district.  

He found schools throughout the district falsified attendance records by marking students as lost without trying to find them. 

Audits of 36 schools found such false reports. 

Three employees at an elementary school removed 20 truants from enrollment in a year by recording them as transfers. 

The principal retired and a clerk resigned. 

Fletcher wrote that the district stopped penalizing failure to verify transfers in 2017 and the number of unverified transfers increased since then. 

He wrote that miscoded students don’t have access to assistance they would otherwise receive. 

He found nine employees violated the district’s residency requirement and three of them broke other rules. 

A special education teacher resigned after violating the residency rule and arranging free or reduced price meals. 

An elementary school teacher resigned after violating the residency rule, using district email to promote an outside business, and using sick time to visit Ghana. 

A lunchroom manager resigned after violating the residency rule and directing workers to clock her in before she arrived. 

He found an elementary school employee and his wife secured more than $315,000 in purchase orders through multiple companies. 

The employee had a lengthy criminal record and a felony drug conviction that should have barred him from working in schools. 

His principal retired and failed to cooperate in the investigation. 

An individual who stole a Social Security number and forged an application for an hourly job gave up the job when investigators contacted her.