CHICAGO — A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging several Thornridge High School officials failed to prevent a coach from regularly sexually assaulting a female student athlete.
In November 2019, an unnamed plaintiff sued Thornton Township District 205, as well as Thornridge Principal James Walton Jr., Assistant Principal Steve Valant, Superintendent Leotis Swopes and Milton Griggs, who coached softball and football at the school in suburban Dolton. In addition to sexual battery charges against McGriggs, the complaint accuses all defendants of Title IX violations as well as state-law claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress, failure to supervise and willful and wanton conduct.
In an opinion issued March 29, Judge John Blakey rejected the school board’s motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim and lack of jurisdiction. He also denied the administrators’ request for dismissal on the same grounds.
Shanita Q.T. Straw
| Golden Law
According to Blakey, the plaintiff’s mother found McGriggs, then 49, assaulting her daughter at their home on July 5, 2016. The student was on the school softball team and managed its football team. The mother also said McGriggs had her sign, on Aug. 18, 2015, a form authorizing him to transport her daughter to and from softball games. She said she submitted that request to Walton and Valant, “neither of whom batted an eye,” Blakey wrote, nor told her the plan violated school policy.
Blakey further explained allegations of the sexual contact, including on school property, and that McGriggs conditioned the girl’s positions “as football manager and star softball player on her continued willingness to engage such sexual acts, and that, as a result of such acts, she wound up with a sexually-transmitted disease and her academic performance suffered.”
In April 2016, District 205 Boys Athletics Director Sherry Jackson allegedly asked McGriggs about his relationship with the student, including the transportation agreement, but “McGriggs told Jackson that he served as plaintiff’s legal guardian and that Principal Walton had approved the transportation arrangement,” Blakey wrote. Jackson discovered McGriggs was not a guardian and emailed Walton and Valant on April 2. Although Walton allegedly emailed Swopes and said he would investigate, the plaintiff alleges no one in the district took action.
Blakey said the lawsuit alleged McGriggs “has a history of inappropriate sexual harassment of students,” including impregnating one and harassing another to the point she transferred. Although the district knew of these and other instances, the student alleged, the district failed to protect its students and the only reason the abuse continued is because her mother discovered the situation and had McGriggs arrested.
The complaint survived the motion to dismiss, Blakey said, because of allegations the student’s academic performance suffered as a direct result of harassment and that her extracurricular positions were conditioned on compliance with a demand for sexual favors. Furthermore, the complaint contained sufficient allegations the board was aware of McGriggs’ history and his lies about the authority to spend time alone with her in his car.
Blakey specifically shot down the school district board's attempt to argue the student's lawsuit should be dismissed because she had yet to establish the board had “requisite control over the abuse."
"Nonsense," Blakey wrote, noting the student listed specific claims of improper conduct on school property surrounding school events.
Title IX claims can only be brought against educational institutions, and although the complaint doesn’t appear to include the administrators in those allegations, Blakey said, she is only allowed to proceed on those claims against the district.
The state-law claims, however, apply to all defendants, and Blakey again said the complaint included sufficient allegations to survive a motion to dismiss, including her position the district had a duty to protect her from McGriggs and that failure to do so renders the conduct willful and wanton.
Blakey further rejected the applicability of the Illinois Tort Immunity Act, finding that although administrators “may ultimately” avoid liability for the negligence claims, the record as developed doesn’t illuminate which “employees acted and whether those actions qualify as discretionary policy decisions” sufficient to establish such protections. Even so, he predicted “such immunity likely will not apply” because there aren’t competing interests involved in the need to intervene and stop ongoing sexual assault.
“This is not a case where a teacher failed to supervise or monitor the bad behavior of another student,” Blakey wrote. “Plaintiff alleges that defendants hired a known sexual predator and then allowed him to have isolated access to her, failing to take any action to protect her from the known risk of sexual abuse, which then occurred. The allegations that defendants effectively allowed the sexual abuse of the minors they were charged to protect and educate, if true (and the court assumes they are true at this point) suffice to constitute willful and wanton conduct. Ultimately, plaintiff might not be able to prove that the defendants are guilty of willful and wanton conduct, but she most certainly has alleged as much.”
Blakey gave the defendants until April 12 to answer the complaint and ordered joint status reports be filed by April 27.
The student is represented by attorneys Shanita Q. T. Straw and Daniel W. Diamond of Golden Law, of Oak Park; and Brendan Shiller and Jeanette Samuels, of Shiller Preyar Law Offices, of Chicago.
The Thornton school district is represented by attorneys Charles A. LeMoine and Molly E. Thompson,of Dykema Gossett PLLc, of Chicago.
The individual defendants are represented by attorneys Katherine G. Schnake, of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, of Chicago, and Jason L. Santos, of Daniel P. Costello & Associates PC, of Chicago.