Parents deserve the whole story of Marine Leadership Academy sexual abuse allegations

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It didn’t take long to discover that Chicago public school officials apparently knew a lot more than the public had initially learned about the Northwest Side high school sex abuse scandal.

Last Friday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez announced that the District Inspector General had corroborated allegations of sexual misconduct and cover-up against 13 adults at the Marine Leadership Academy. Ten of the 13 were made redundant.

We can’t say it better than Martinez: “The behavior uncovered by this investigation represents an astonishing betrayal of trust and a lack of judgment and colossal character on the part of too many individuals. ”

But after the latest report by Sarah Karp of WBEZ Chicago and Nader Issa of the Sun-Times, we have more questions: Who at the highest levels of the CPS knew the details of the allegations soon after they first appeared in 2019? And most importantly, what did they do about it over the next two years?

It goes without saying that parents and the public deserve the whole story about allegations of student sexual abuse.

Yet lawyers and CPS leaders have long been aware of a sexual misconduct investigation and failure to report it, although they claim to the contrary, as reported by Karp and Issa.

Marine Leadership director since 2015, Erin Galfer, was even promoted just months before she was among those fired for allegedly failing to report misconduct. Galfer is now fighting her dismissal and says it was the CPS leadership, not her, who ignored the reports of abuse.

Meanwhile, Inspector General Will Fletcher said his office alerted the CPS in April 2019 to three allegations and listed the director as one of those accused of failing to report some of the situations. The IG said it was constantly updating the CPS about the investigation as it unfolded.

So what exactly happened between April 2019 and now?

The discovery is only the first step, followed by more stringent reforms, if necessary, beyond those of the CPS instituted in 2019 after a Chicago Tribune investigation found widespread mismanagement of sexual abuse cases.

Martinez, who is new to the CPS and could not know the details until being briefed in late October, has already taken aggressive action. Staff who fail to report abuse – not just perpetrators – will be removed from their posts. He also plans to pressure Illinois lawmakers to make it illegal for school employees to have sex with students, regardless of their age.

The district has added staff to the IG office, which should help speed up the pace of investigations.

When it comes to protecting children from predators, there is no room for anything other than full transparency that fully empowers adults.

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