NBC 5 Investigates has learned the Chicago Board of Education is expected to vote Wednesday on a proposed $17.5 million settlement involving a former student who was sexually abused by her former school administrator.
It is believed to be one of the largest sexual abuse settlements in Illinois school history.
The former student, now in her 20s, sued Chicago Public Schools last year over the alleged abuse she said she endured. She also spoke to NBC 5 Investigates this spring as part of our “Lessons in Betrayal” series, which uncovered a culture of sexual misconduct inside Little Village Lawndale High School.
An NBC 5 investigation found that since 2017, at least seven educators have been fired or resigned from Little Village Lawndale High School while under investigation for sexual misconduct.
This summer, the CPS inspector general completed its three-year long investigation into the matter, which substantiated many of the allegations against the teachers.
They’ve all since been banned from working at CPS and the district has passed a series of policy changes aimed at better protecting students – and now recent graduates – from potential grooming, boundary violations or sexual abuse.
Brian Crowder, the former dean of discipline at the social justice program within LVLHS, was the only one of the seven educators to be criminally charged and convicted. In most cases, the former students who came forward to NBC 5 Investigates alleged that their sexual encounters with the educators there happened after they turned 18 or in the days, weeks or months after they graduated.
Child advocates have argued to NBC 5 Investigates that there’s a gap in Illinois law, which still allows for teachers to have sex with students as long as their 18 and consent.
In Crowder’s case, he was charged and convicted this summer on four of seven charges he faced, including aggravated criminal sexual abuse and sexual assault. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His attorney has since appealed.
The victim in the case, a former student who filed a Jane Doe lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools last year, told NBC 5 Investigates earlier this year that her years-long involvement with Crowder began after he sent her a message on Snapchat.
At the time, she was a 15-year-old sophomore.
He was the dean of students.
“I just wasn’t like a normal high school student. Like, I just felt, like, different. I felt like I grew up, like, so much faster,” the person identified as Jane Doe told NBC 5 Investigates during an April interview. We are not naming her because news outlets traditionally do not name sexual assault victims unless they choose to be identified. “Obviously, we had a sexual relationship. At one point, I got pregnant the first time.”
In our interview, Jane described a moment when she left ultrasound results on Crowder’s desk and later told him she wanted to keep the child.
“And when I said that, he just kind of like went crazy and spazzed out on me and it was all bad after that,” Jane said. “And he’s like, you can’t do this to me, and we can’t have this baby. And you know, and so eventually he convinced me to have the abortion. And after that, it just was all bad.”
Court records show Crowder twice posed as Jane’s stepfather so that she could get two abortions while she was still in high school. A third, she says, happened after she stopped attending Little Village Lawndale High School.
During his criminal trial in July, prosecutors showed documents that Crowder’s cell phone number was on the abortion clinic’s records and that he called off from work at CPS on the same days Jane had the abortions.
During his trial, when NBC 5 Investigative reporter Bennett Haeberle asked Crowder what message he would have for the student who said he abused her, Crowder was silent.
While Crowder was initially named as co-defendant in the civil lawsuit, he was dropped earlier this year as the case moved closer to trial.
This week, Cook County court records show that the judge overseeing Jane Doe’s lawsuit dismissed the case due to the proposed settlement.
Attorneys representing Jane Doe declined to comment ahead of the vote but have previously described Jane’s case as “egregious.”
Under the terms of this proposed settlement, the Board of Education “specifically denies that it is legally liable” and agreed to the settled to end what it called “costly litigation and to mitigate the financial risk to the Board and the taxpayers,” according to the terms reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates.
NBC 5 Investigates’ review of previous settlements shows an eight-figure settlement is rare and believed to be the largest in Illinois school history.
A spokeswoman for Chicago Public Schools also declined to comment ahead of Wednesday’s school board meeting.
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