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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. It was not clear why the total amount grew, but 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 did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat about the settlement at the time of publication.
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.
News reports in 2019 said the teacher, Kristen Haynes, was removed from her position at Tilton. She is still listed as a teacher at the school as of Dec. 31, 2024 in the district’s public employment records.
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 abuse case involving a dean of students at the Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice. Last summer, Brian Crowder pleaded guilty to the charges and then changed his mind.
The woman – who is now in her mid-twenties – filed a lawsuit against CPS last spring after Crowder was charged with criminal sexual assault in 2022. The repeated sexual abuse started in 2013 when the woman was 15 and continued for roughly two years. Crowder allegedly paid for her to have an abortion and posed as her stepfather in order to sign consent forms, prosecutors said.
The woman filed a police report in 2021 and Crowder left his job at CPS between September and December of that year, according to CPS employee records.
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.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
