Sexual misconduct complaints from students in Chicago have increased in number.
Will Fletcher, the Inspector General of the Chicago Board of Education, revealed that students had filed 470 sexual harassment complaints against the Chicago Public School District workers in 2022.
The recently released sexual misconduct report includes complaints from students about being assaulted, groomed, abused, and threatened by school officials.
Sexual complaints against public school employees
The Sexual Assault Unit (SAU) resolved more than 600 cases of sexual assault in Chicago in 2022, an increase of over 300 cases compared to the number of cases resolved in 2021.
One of the cases they were able to resolve in their investigation was that of the incident of a female 11th grader student against her male teacher.
Illinois Policy reports that when they were both in the car during driver's education, the male high school teacher inappropriately exposed himself to a female student in the 11th grade.
According to Illinois Policy, "administrators only learned about the altercation because the girl took to social media when nobody believed her and another student came forward with allegations against the same teacher, who now faces criminal charges and has since resigned."
With the increasing number of reports filed, the SAU has made strategic adjustments to manage the high number of cases it is investigating without sacrificing the quality of its work.
The SAU has had significant achievements throughout the past four years.
As a result of claims brought forth by students, alumni, parents, employees, and other individuals, it has started 1,735 investigations.
The Child Protective Unit reports that the SAU has resolved 1,384 incidents that raised concerns of adult-on-student sexual misconduct and has found confirmed policy violations in 302 investigations.
High cases of sexual misconduct
While the number of allegations and confirmed cases of sexual misconduct is concerning within the District and impacted school communities, authorities in Chicago assure the public that there is no evidence that the rate of these occurrences is higher than in other districts around the country.
According to Chalkbeat, Mary Fergus, spokeswoman for Chicago Public Schools, their organization is taking the increasing reports of sexual misconduct seriously.
She added they are taking responsibility and accountability to address the problems presented.
Fergus also stated that they would continue to uphold the highest ethical standards for the Chicago Public Schools.
The spokeswoman assured that they would thoroughly investigate with fair judgment all the people involved in each case and hold the violators accountable for the appropriate consequences of their sexual misconduct.
Sexual Allegations Unit of Chicago
The Sexual Assault Unit was formed in October 2018 to help people resolve cases faster and more thoroughly in complaints related to sexual misconduct.
With authority over a wide range of sexual misconduct complaints and associated allegations involving K-12 students and school employees, the SAU remains the sole independent investigative body in the country.
The SAU has rapidly expanded into a group of more than 30 personnel who are each individually prepared to handle hundreds of allegations of sexual misconduct each year.
