Friday, January 9, 2009 East Central Illinois

Normal school district named in sex abuse lawsuit

By: Amy F. Reiter

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Friday, September 26, 2008

 

NORMAL – A fourth lawsuit has been filed against Jon White and officials in the McLean County Unit 5 school district in Normal, this one brought by two girls from Normal and their families.

White taught in Normal schools before getting an elementary school teaching position in the Urbana school district. In January 2007 he was arrested, and he has since pleaded guilty to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse – eight in Champaign County and two in McLean County.

The 23-count suit was filed by Champaign lawyer Ellyn Bullock on Thursday, according to Bullock's legal assistant, Molly Vandeveer.

Bullock also represents two of White's child victims from Urbana and their families, all of whom have already filed civil suits against White and others.

The suit filed Thursday is on behalf of girls referred to as Jane Doe-10 and Jane Doe-11 and their parents.

Each of the 23 counts in the suit asks the court for a sum upward of $50,000.

The suit names the school district as a defendant, as well as four people who were Normal school administrators at the time: former Superintendent Alan Chapman; Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Jim Braksick; former Assistant Principal Dale Heidbreder; and John Pye, the assistant superintendent of operations and human resources.

According to the complaint, in about March 2004, the parents of the two girls from Normal allegedly together told Heidbreder about White's inappropriate actions toward their daughters.

The complaint alleges that White called both the girls' mothers saying he was worried about his career but refused to stop hugging girls in his class. The suit alleges that Heidbreder told Braksick, White, Pye and Chapman about the parents' report about White, and none reported it to the Department of Children and Family Services. Under Illinois law, all school employees are required to report suspicions of abuse or neglect to DCFS.

The counts in the suit filed Thursday allege that White committed battery toward the girls and that they were the victims of hate crimes and gender discrimination because girls were targeted in White's classroom. Other counts – both against the school district and individual administrators – allege that the administrators and White intentionally caused the girls and their families emotional distress and that White, Heidbreder and Braksick agreed "they would not make mandated reports" about White to DCFS.

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