The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday approved a $17.5 million settlement for a former student who was sexually abused by a former dean at a Little Village high school.
It’s the largest settlement for a school sex abuse case in Illinois history, according to the law firm representing the former student.
The former student, identified as Jane Doe in court records, filed a lawsuit last year against Chicago Public Schools and Brian Crowder, who was working as dean of students at the Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice when the abuse began over a decade ago.
Crowder started messaging the student when she was 16 and a high school junior. He brought her to his home and twice posed as her stepfather when she became pregnant so she could get an abortion, court records show. The abuse continued after she left high school.
CPS removed Crowder from his position at the school in 2021 after the student, now a 24-year-old woman, filed a police report. Crowder was sentenced to 22 years in prison this summer, after being convicted of sexual assault and sexual abuse of a minor.
In a statement, CPS denied wrongdoing but said the district chose to resolve the case through a settlement to avoid the “uncertainty, cost, and emotional toll” of a trial. The district will pay $10 million of the settlement and insurance is covering the rest.
“We recognize the seriousness of the allegations in this matter and the impact the student has reported experiencing,” a district spokesperson wrote. “Chicago Public Schools takes all reports of misconduct seriously, and the District remains committed to the safety and well-being of every student entrusted to our care.”
The settlement comes as the watchdog overseeing the district says his office is investigating fewer cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct by adults against students, though schools are reporting a similar number of allegations.
Two years ago, the unit within the CPS Inspector General’s Office that investigates sexual allegations opened 463 cases. Last school year, it opened 246. This school year is trending even lower, with 51 cases opened through the end of November.
The decrease follows a recent decision by the Inspector General’s Office to prioritize investigating more severe allegations, such as those involving sexual abuse and sexual acts, CPS Inspector General Phil Wagenknecht told school board members Wednesday.
“That was a strong effort on our part to reduce our case volume and make a large dent into our backlog,” Wagenknecht said.
The unit used to look into cases where there were no allegations of sexual misconduct but boundaries may have been crossed, such as a janitor repeatedly giving a student candy.
Wagenknecht said this narrowing of focus has allowed the unit to close a higher share of its investigations per year.
More timely investigations are sorely needed, said board member Carlos A. Rivas, Jr., who said he’d heard of students and staff who waited two or three years for their case to reach a resolution.
Since the inspector general launched its sexual allegations unit seven years ago, it has opened 2,731 cases and closed 2,401, Wagenknecht said. Investigators substantiated allegations in 471 of those cases, about 10% of which involved findings of sexual abuse or sexual acts.
The inspector general’s office office first received full authority over all CPS sexual abuse cases involving adults in June 2018 after the Chicago Tribune’s “Betrayed” series uncovered the district’s widespread and serious mishandling of students’ reports of sexual abuse.
During the meeting, school board member Ellen Rosenfeld said the number of reports is “obviously not where we need it to be” and asked what more the district could do.
Wagenknecht said while the high number of reports is concerning, it’s a good sign that people feel empowered to make reports.
“Certainly I think the school district is in a far better place than it was in 2018,” he said. “The more we can just continue with outreach, and training, and awareness, the more we can protect children.”
In its statement, Gould Grieco & Hensley, the law firm representing the former student, acknowledged the district has changed its policies and conducted training to protect students in the aftermath of the Tribune’s reporting, but said more needs to be done.
The law firm said the young woman who was abused plans to give a portion of her settlement to CHILD USA, a nonprofit that aims to end child abuse and neglect, to evaluate CPS policies and training and provide recommendations for improvement.
Meanwhile, the Office of Student Protections and Title IX, which looks into allegations of sexual misconduct between students and other concerns, saw the opposite trend than what the inspector general reported. That office received fewer reports last year but opened more investigations.
Among the worrying trends: A bigger share of the office’s investigations are related to dating violence.
The office’s chief, Elizabeth Mendoza Browne, said CPS is looking for “partner organizations to help us conduct intensive workshops with students who are engaged in this behavior.”