Whiteside didn’t take action after complaints of abuse at summer camp, lawsuit states
The mother of a former Whiteside School student has filed a federal lawsuit against the District 115, saying it failed to act when her daughter complained that she was sexually abused at the hands of another student almost two years ago.
The suit, filed July 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, also names former Whiteside Superintendent Peggy Burke and Whiteside Elementary School Principal Nathan Rakers. It alleges that the district violated Title IX by not investigating the alleged abuse as they are obligated to under the federal act.
In the suit, the mother states her then 8-year-old daughter was the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sexual battery by another juvenile while attending the Summer of Academics and Recreation (S.O.A.R.) camp in 2017. The program is organized, staffed and supervised by District 115 for children going into first grade through fifth grade.
According to the summer 2019 registration form, the program offers academics, recreation and field trips and is based in the Whiteside Elementary School gym.
The alleged sexual assaults occurred on multiple occasions during the course of the summer, the lawsuit states, but especially on “Movie Days,” where S.O.A.R. participants could bring sleeping bags, pillows and blankets from home to use while watching a movie. The lawsuit states that sometimes two or three children would be in the same sleeping bags or blankets at the same time.
The Belleville News-Democrat is not naming the mother in order to protect the identity of the alleged juvenile victim. Anthony P. Gilbreth, the lawyer representing the mother and child, said he could not comment on the case due to the nature of the alleged crimes.
Whiteside had not been served with the lawsuit as of Wednesday afternoon. The school’s new superintendent, Mark Heuring, said Wednesday he could not provide comment on the lawsuit.
The mother states in the lawsuit that she reported the abuse to the S.O.A.R. program director, who is not named, on Aug. 15, 2017. The director then conducted interviews of the children believed to be the perpetrators and victims of the alleged abuse and reported it to Rakers, the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, Rakers did not take action to notify parents until two weeks later, on Aug. 29, 2017, when the mother confronted him about the incident. Only then, the lawsuit states, did Rakers notified the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services and local law enforcement.
The lawsuit states that Rakers informed then-Superintendent Burke about the accusations, but that she also failed to act.
The lawsuit states that despite the knowledge of the “sexual violence” that happened, the school district, Rakers and Burke did not take action and that this proves they were “deliberately indifferent to the denial of equal access to education resulting therefrom.”
An August 2017 criminal investigation into Whiteside by the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department was closed because the alleged perpetrator was less than 10 years old and, therefore, could not be charged, Capt. Bruce Fleshren said in an email. He said the results of the investigation were turned over to the school and to DCFS for any discipline or counseling needs.
Following local media reports of the investigation in September 2017, another parent came forward saying their child had also been abused by another juvenile student while attending the summer camp, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that despite this, “Whiteside still did not conduct a Title IX investigation, no remedial services were offered, no information was disseminated to parents and that the school district took no action to prevent future occurrences of sexual abuse or remediate the abuse that already occurred.”
The alleged perpetrator of the abuse was allowed to move to Whiteside Middle School in the fall.
The mother states that as her daughter returned to Whiteside Elementary School that year, she was under a “school supervision” plan while at school and on the bus. The lawsuit claims the alleged victim suffered stress, anxiety and emotional distress, including hair loss, as a result.
The alleged victim was supposed to attend the middle school the following school year, but the lawsuit states that the school district didn’t address the hostile environment the complain says would have been created for the student. The girl instead was home-schooled until the family could establish residency in another district, where she attends school to this day, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also alleges that the school district was neglectful and did not exercise “reasonable care to protect the children” from sexual harassment, sexual battery and sexual abuse while enrolled in a school-sponsored program.
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