The Chicago Tribune’s editorial today should outrage all parents, students, community members. Sexual predators work for the Chicago Public Schools assaulting, molesting, groping, raping children. In the era of the #MeToo hashtag, the Chicago Public Schools sit idly as students, from elementary to high school get abused, violated, and damaged. “I am sick to my stomach” CEO Janice Jackson says, but the question is what she and others taxpayer-funded adults are doing to stop the outrage. The Chicago Tribune Article tells the kids that they are on their own and that the adults aren’t doing a thing to protect them:
“If any adult at your school — from teacher to lunchroom helper — is a sexual predator, CPS officials can’t be counted on to fulfill their most critical duty to protect you. You can’t trust them to conduct proper background checks on people they hire, or to keep track of employees who are accused of sex crimes while employed by the district. You can’t rely on district officials to immediately alert child welfare investigators or police when allegations are made, despite Illinois law. You can’t depend on them not to muddy the integrity of future investigations or to inflict more pain on victims who are brave enough to come forward. You can’t even count on them to tell other schools in Illinois or in other states that an educator was disciplined or fired for alleged abuse.”
The newspaper published a report authored by investigative journalists David Jackson, Jennifer Smith Richards, Gary Marx, and Juan Perez Jr. titled Betrayed, a fitting title for the widespread betrayal of children’s safety, autonomy, dignity, and the ability to enjoy childhood. According to the report, sexual predators are everywhere – from teacher, to lunchroom helper, to coach, to janitor. Some of these characters are employees of CPS, others are contractors, and all are united in their depravity.
CEO Janice Jackson is upset, but everyone else should be more upset that she had to learn from the Chicago Tribune about the abuse by the Chicago Public Schools’ employees and contractors. The the newspaper had obtained 500 reports of sexual violence against Chicago Public Schools students, in the schools, by adults, working for the schools. Where was the Chicago Board of Education and the CEO when 500, 499, 498… children were abused? One would expect that there has to be a threshold number much, much below 500 and a newspaper report, to trigger a substantive response. Perhaps Ms. Janice Jackson should do more for proper background checks, supervision, and should read the police reports.
Do you know where your children are? They are in school. And they are being abused.
Our law office recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education, and its contractors Aramark and the Vargas Group for sexual predatory behavior of an adult against an elementary school student. If you have been a victim of a sexual abuse contact the Chicago law office of Zneimer & Zneimer .