CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago Public Schools have settled a 2019 civil case brought by a former student, identified as Jane Doe, against the Board of Education and former Gurdon S. Hubbard High School teacher Walter Glascoff.
The amount agreed to pay Doe was $800,000.
Doe spoke exclusively at CBS 2 the week her case was set to go to trial over her experiences in high school some twenty years ago.
“I still have nightmares almost every night,” she said.
She spoke about the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of Glascoff.
“He made me feel like I was a bad person if I didn’t care about him,” she said.
Doe spoke out after hearing what an expert witness paid by the CPS testified in a recent statement and could have said in court if the case had not been resolved.
“It’s so frustrating,” Doe said. “It makes me feel like they’re saying they agree with him that it was okay to do this to me.”
The hired expert is Dr. Prudence Gourguechon, a licensed psychiatrist in Illinois. She no longer practices, but she said she has been an expert witness in nearly three dozen cases: 60% of the time for the plaintiff and 40% for the defense.
In Doe’s case, Dr. testified. Gourguechon said in the statement that not all cases of sexual abuse are traumatic. She also said that not all teachers at a school have positions of authority over students.
When asked if it is traumatic for someone to experience a sexual assault, Dr. Gourguechon: “It depends. It depends on the details, and how they define it; who is claiming what and what actually happened.”
In 2018, Doe had told a therapist about the high school teacher who had sex with her. That therapist reported it to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. CPS has launched an investigation.
Ultimately, the district determined that Glascoff had abused Jane. Glascoff had admitted to district investigators that he had sex with Jane while she was in high school.
Calls for change
After learning about Jane Doe’s troubled history, hearing the CPS expert’s controversial opinions, and watching CPS attorneys try to force Jane Doe to reveal her identity just before the start of the trial, lawmakers spoke in Springfield passionately expressed itself on the floor of the Illinois House.
“Why don’t we listen to the children who are being raped?” asked Rep. Steven Reick (R-Woodstock).
Fellow Republican Rep. Amy Elik (R-Alton) asked, “When are we going to protect the children?”
And across the aisle, Rep. Curtis Tarver II (D-Chicago) was visibly upset.
“I’m beyond frustrated,” he said.
Later, Tarver spoke to CBS 2 about the impact Jane Doe’s story and the CPS’s legal tactics story had on him. His 11-year-old daughter attends a CPS school.
“The only thing going through my mind was, what if this was my daughter?” Tarver said.
Rep. Tarver, Rep. Elik and others in the House drafted and introduced a new bill in the final days of this session.
HB222 would transpose language into state law to clarify the impact of sexual violence on students in elementary schools.
“The idea that it wouldn’t automatically be traumatic to be sexually assaulted by an adult is just stupid to me,” said Rep. Tarver.
Representative Elik agreed: “There should be no doubt in the mind of an expensive, highly paid expert witness as to whether or not sexual assault is traumatic.”
HB222 also includes language from an earlier bill by Rep. Elik, which prevents defendants from blaming child abuse survivors in civil lawsuits.
Both lawmakers expect overwhelming support in the House of Representatives, but Rep. Tarver wants more. He is demanding that CPS General Counsel Ruchi Verma be fired, and he said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should make that happen.
‘He has to do the right thing. He needs to fire her, period,” Tarver said. “There is no discussion.”
CBS 2 reached out to the mayor’s office for comment and did not hear back.
CPS gave the following responses to CBS 2:
First statement:
The safety and well-being of our staff and students is a top priority and fundamental to our school communities. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) works proactively to prevent sexual assault and agrees that all students who suffer harm as a result of a legally recognized district failure must be reasonably compensated so that the student’s injuries can be are remedied. The District and our General Counsel recognize the traumatic impact of sexual abuse; our system is continuously working to inform leaders, teachers and students about sexual assault and how to report it.
In litigation, the District works to resolve disagreements surrounding victim compensation and in those cases the District must balance its responsibility to reasonably compensate a victim with the District’s responsibility to reach a resolution that not only is legally justified, but also financially responsible. The Board of Education supports our General Counsel and our efforts to balance these two interests to reach mutually acceptable solutions, as we did last week through a settlement that will be subject to Board approval next month in a case involving a former student. and employee. The District believes that the reported statements of its expert were taken out of context and do not accurately reflect the position of the District or its expert. The district continues to inform staff and students of their rights and responsibilities to report any type of staff misconduct or abuse. We will continue to share that information and ensure everyone understands that their concerns will be heard and addressed in accordance with our district policies and in collaboration with City and State partners.
Second statement:
Chicago Public Schools and our General Counsel work daily to maintain and protect the safety, well-being and privacy of all students. The District and our General Counsel strongly refute any claims regarding the intent or motivation of our legal strategies during the trial of this case, which has now been resolved.
Appearing for initial status before the newly assigned trial judge, the trial attorneys consulted with the judge on a variety of issues, including whether it was appropriate for a now-adult plaintiff to appear as “Jane Doe.” Shortly thereafter, both parties filed motions regarding the use of the Doe designation. After ruling on the request, the judge recognized that this issue was appropriate to raise. This is a legal procedural issue that could have been raised earlier in the trial and was not, but was addressed to establish the record before the trial began.
Irika Sargent
