CPS students with disabilities abused by teacher at West Pullman school, lawsuit alleges

A Chicago Public School teacher is accused of mentally and physically abusing young students with disabilities at Whistler Elementary School on the Far Southwest Side, often telling them, “The longer you cry, the longer I will hit you.”

The teacher routinely “administered harmful, physical and violent corporal punishment,” including striking students with her hands and wooden rulers, the parents allege in a lawsuit filed this week.

She would also regularly curse at the children, the lawsuit alleges, yelling “Get your a— up here” and “Shut the f—k up.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight parents and guardians of children in grades kindergarten through second at Whistler, 11533 S. Ada St., in the West Pullman neighborhood.

CPS released a statement Thursday saying the teacher has been removed from the school while it investigates the allegations.

The lawsuit alleges that students would often leave the classroom with visible marks, but when a parent questioned the teacher and school principal they were told that “these physically and mentally challenged minor children at times are clumsy (and) tend to fall.”

Julie Hagan, the mother of a 6-year-old boy who is diagnosed with autism, said her son stopped eating lunch when he started at Whistler in the fall and began to cry when they pulled up to the school in the morning.

The boy also began using expressions he had not learned at home, but she assumed they were heard by other students.

“Never did I imagine that he was getting that type of language from the teacher,” Hagan said in a statement to the media Thursday. “When I look back on it, what happened made me feel terrible because I wasn’t picking up the signs that my son was being abused.”

Hagan said she believes the principal knew about the abuse because the teacher has been at the school for 20 years.

“The abuse by that teacher had to be an open secret,” Hagan wrote.

Another parent, Pearl King, said she took her 5-year-old daughter to the hospital when she came home from school one day in October with signs of abuse. King said she complained to the teacher and principal, who both “acted like nothing was wrong.”

King said her daughter’s behavior has changed since that day. She now wets the bed, is “afraid of making simple mistakes,” and cries when the school bus approaches.

“I feel discouraged because I feel like I have let my daughter down,” King said in a statement to the media. “It was my job to protect her and see that she is in a safe environment. And I now believe that something terribly wrong was happening at Whistler Elementary and that my daughter has been abused in that school.”

The lawsuit names CPS, the board of education, the teacher and the principal.

The district’s Office of Student Protections and Title IX has launched an investigation into the allegations, according to a statement sent to Whistler parents. The teacher will also be removed from the school for the course of the investigation.

“Chicago Public Schools is committed to the safety and well-being of our students and takes seriously all allegations of employee misconduct,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “CPS investigates and addresses all complaints in accordance with district policies and procedures to foster safe and secure learning environments in all schools.”

CPS did not provide any additional comments.