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This story has been updated with a statement from Chicago Public Schools.
The Chicago Board of Education approved nearly $4 million in legal settlements Thursday, including a $2.7 million payment to the family of a boy who was beaten by an adult in the bathroom of a West Side elementary school in 2018.
A federal jury ordered the school board last September to pay $750,000 to Asia Gaines, the mother of the victim. In addition to the court settlement, $2 million will go to cover Gaines’ attorneys fees, a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said. The agenda item approving the settlement said the district’s legal team reached an agreement to accept the court’s settlement recommendation and resolve Gaines’ “anticipated petition to recover her attorneys’ fees and costs.”
“Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is committed to providing all students with safe and supportive learning environments, and it takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously. CPS investigates and addresses all complaints in accordance with District policies and procedures to foster safe and secure learning environments in all schools,” the CPS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “CPS believes that students who are harmed as a result of a legally acknowledged failure on the part of the District should be provided with compensation that is both fair and reasonable.”
The lawsuit — filed in federal court in 2019 — details how the boy’s teacher at Tilton Elementary allowed her adult friend to beat Gaines’ son in a school bathroom before class. The boy, identified in documents as J.C., was 9 years old and in fourth grade at the time.
According to the CPS spokesperson, the teacher, Kristen Haynes, was “immediately removed from her position” at Tilton after the district became aware of the incident. She is currently suspended without pay, pending a ruling from an Illinois State Board of Education hearing, the spokesperson said.
According to court records, Haynes was well-known at Tilton for being a disciplinarian and kept two leather belts in her classroom closet with which she would threaten students. Students knew the belts by the names “Mr. Brown” and “Mr. Black,” according to testimony at trial.
The school board also approved an $800,000 settlement for a Jane Doe in a sexual assault case filed in 2023. That case involved two students, but one was an adult and one was a minor. The victim, a minor, was allegedly assaulted on school property in an unlocked room with a broken alarm at South Shore International College Prep that students used for sex and recreational drug use, according to a copy of the complaint.
In addition to these two large settlements, the school board on Thursday also approved two more settlements worth around $200,000 and 42 others under $100,000.
Correction 3/3/2025: A previous version of this story misidentified the Jane Doe case as another one involving sexual abuse at a different high school a decade ago. That case is not yet settled.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
