A young woman has filed suit against the Chicago Public Schools for allegedly allowing her to be repeatedly sexually assaulted by a male dean at Little Village Lawndale High School for years beginning at the age of 15, allegedly causing her to become pregnant twice and undergo two abortions before she graduated high school to cover up the illicit conduct.
The lawsuit asserts others within the school and district were aware of at least the possibility that the dean was abusing the student, and yet did nothing. The complaint asserts the sexual assault allegations are part of a widespread and longstanding culture across the CPS system permitting grooming and sexual assault and abuse of students within CPS by teachers and other school staff.
Attorney Martin Gould is representing the former CPS student
| Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a woman identified only as Jane Doe, a former student at LVLHS. The high school includes four autonomous small schools: Multicultural Academy of Scholarship High School; Infinity Math, Science and Technology High School; World Language High School; and Social Justice High School. In all, each of the schools educate about 400 students.
According to the complaint, the student attended Social Justice High School from 2012-2016. She is now at least 25 years old.
According to the complaint, Crowder allegedly used the social media instant messaging service SnapChat to begin a relationship with the student and begin grooming her for later abuse.
According to the complaint, Crowder allegedly sent "increasingly inappropriate images" to the student on SnapChat, including allegedly sexually explicit messages.
The behavior allegedly escalated to taking the student on dates, and to his home during her sophomore year. Allegedly, during that time, Crowder allegedly engaged in sex acts with the student.
This allegedly continued for years, according to the complaint. Twice during that period, the student allegedly became pregnant, and twice Crowder persuaded her to secretly get abortions to cover up his alleged abuse. According to the complaint, Crowder allegedly took the student to abortion clinics, where he allegedly claimed to be her parent to sidestep a law then on the books requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortions.
The lawsuit does not indicate which abortion clinics may have performed the abortions, nor why they accepted Crowder's claims to be her parent.
That law, however, is no longer in effect, after Gov. JB Pritzker and the Democratic supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly repealed the parental notification requirement in 2022, claiming it would place too many restrictions in the path of women seeking abortions.
Anti-abortion supporters of the law asserted the repeal would allow sex traffickers and other abusers of young girls to use abortions to cover up their misconduct, with no questions asked.
According to the complaint, Crowder allegedly told the student he loved her and would have children with her when she became an adult.
According to the complaint, after the abortions, the student "lived in constant fear and would cry regularly before and after going to and from the school."
The complaint asserts the student believed she could not tell anyone about her situation, because Crowder, as dean of students, was "in charge of discipline of teachers and students" at the school.
The complaint does not explain why the student's parents never became involved in the situation.
However, according to the complaint, other staff and administrators at the school were aware of "how much time was spent alone" between Crowder and the student, and would "make jokes about a romantic interest."
Further, the complaint asserts the student allegedly told at least one teacher at the school about the sexual assaults, but the teacher did nothing, only telling her it was "ultimately (her) decision whether to report it to someone else or not."
According to the complaint, Crowder allegedly "told other teachers and/or administrators he was friends (sic) who were also grooming students at LVLHS about the sexual relationship with Jane Doe."
They also allegedly did not report the abuse to authorities.
Crowder was ultimately charged with criminal sexual assault in 2022. He was ousted from his position in 2021.
According to the complaint, however, Doe's case is but one instance of a widespread culture of statutory rape and sexual abuse and assault at LVLHS and within other Chicago Public schools.
They claim Crowder was allegedly one of several teachers and administrators at LVLHS allegedly grooming or sexually abusing students.
And they pointed to investigations by the Chicago Tribune and data from the Office of the Illinois Inspector General showing widespread sexual abuse at the hands of CPS teachers and administrators.
According to a press release from the Stinar Gould firm, the OIG's office has received 2,188 reports of child sexual abuse at CPS, and has so far substantiated violations in 363 of those cases.
"The Chicago Public Schools have ignored a longstanding and egregious problem of sexual abuse of minors within its schools," said attorney Martin Gould in a statement included in the release.
"No child should have to experience sexual abuse at the hands of the very adults entrusted with their personal development and safety. Our schools should be a place where students feel safe and where parents feel safe sending their children. Unfortunately, CPS has treated mandatory reporting as an optional guideline, providing a platform for abusers to access children and creating a safe haven where their actions will be tolerated if not concealed.
"As a result of clear disregard for mandatory reporting requirements, children like our client were repeatedly subjected to incomprehensible trauma."
The lawsuit accuses CPS of acting with "utter indifference" in allegedly ignoring the abuse and allowing it to continue, and in retaining Crowder as an employee, even after the student allegedly told other staff and other staff became aware of the potentially abusive relationship.
They are seeking unspecified payment exceeding $50,000 against Crowder and CPS, as his former employer.
Doe is represented by attorneys Gould, Michael R. Grieco and Nicholas P. Wainwright, of the Stinar Gould firm.