Lawsuit alleges Triad officials failed to protect student from teacher’s harassment
While a former Triad Community School District teacher pursued and sexually harassed a student, district officials failed to protect him, the former student alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in January.
Many of the allegations made in the civil rights and Title IX suit repeat the accusations made in criminal charges against the former teacher and dance coach, Erin Garwood, of Edwardsville. The complaint lists the Triad Community Unit District 2 Board of Education and Triad High School Principal Rodney Winslow as defendants along with Garwood.
“While we cannot comment any further on pending litigation, we deny the allegations against the District and Principal Winslow,” Triad Community School District said in a statement. “The District looks forward to vigorously defending the claim.”
The student, now 19, is referred to as John Doe 10 in the filing, since he was a minor when the alleged harassment occurred. He alleges that the harassment began in 2016 when he was in eighth grade and Garwood was his science teacher, and continued through his junior year in high school.
The lawsuit says Garwood sexually harassed the student via Snapchat, emails, texts and photographs, as well as through in-person stalking, leering and lewd comments. The student further alleges that school officials knew Garwood was an abuser and failed to stop it.
Garwood was arrested in December 2019 and was charged with indecent solicitation of a child, a Class 2 felony, and grooming, a Class 4 felony. She pleaded not guilty.
Garwood’s initial court hearing was originally scheduled for March, it has been postponed until June.
As a result of Garwood’s alleged harassment, the teenager’s peers teased and bullied him, the lawsuit contends. A teacher who heard the discussions about sex with a teacher reported it to the school resource officer, according to the lawsuit.
Garwood resigned from Triad Community School District in July 2019, after being put on leave in May of that year, pending the outcome of the investigation. Her education license has been revoked, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.