Jennifer Smith Richards – Page 8

Laura Lefkow-Hynes' journals include entries about the friendship she had with her high school chemistry teacher. She filed a complaint with Chicago Public Schools after coming to the conclusion as an adult that their relationship had been inappropriate.

A crush, dysfunctional relationship or emotional abuse? CPS moves to fire teacher for conduct 18 years ago.

June 14, 2024 at 6:43 p.m.

Laura Lefkow-Hynes had long viewed her teenage relationship with her chemistry teacher at Lincoln Park High School as mutual, though dysfunctional. Then, as an adult with a daughter of her...

Erin Clark, center, CPS director of Title IX coordination, speaks Nov. 28, 2018, as Deb Spraggins, left, director of investigations with CPS, and Aimee Rodriguez, right, director of compliance and training, look on at a City Council hearing regarding the CPS sexual abuse crisis.

Hundreds of sexual misconduct complaints pour into new CPS Title IX office

May 23, 2019 at 1:31 a.m.

A new Chicago Public Schools office created to investigate cases of student-on-student sexual violence has fielded more than 600 allegations so far this school year, district officials testified Wednesday to...

Forrestal Elementary first graders, discuss a book after reading it with their teacher Ms. Rosenkrantz, on Monday, October 30, 2018, in North Chicago.

Most schools get passing grade in overhauled state report card that focuses on growth rather than passing rates

May 23, 2019 at 1:25 a.m.

About 7 in 10 Illinois schools are rated “commendable” on the state’s overhauled school report cards, but the simplified, positive labels belie a more nuanced story of school quality here....

Search for your school: 2018 Illinois school report cards

May 23, 2019 at 1:25 a.m.

The 2018 Illinois school report cards include a new system for reporting school performance that emphasizes students' year-over-year academic growth. The state assigned each public school a rating that sums...

Chicago Public Schools last year ordered the principal at Bogan High School to retake training because she did not call the child-welfare hotline after one of her teachers physically fought a student.

School workers must report suspected abuse — it’s the law. But at CPS, few have been punished for failing to do so.

June 14, 2024 at 6:43 p.m.

Chicago Public Schools’ child-abuse reporting policy is clear: School workers must report suspected abuse to authorities immediately. And the state “mandated reporter” law, enacted more than four decades ago, makes...

Valuable painting heading to auction to fund West Side library expansion

December 12, 2018 at 2:27 a.m.

Chicago’s North Side has a regional library. So does the South Side. But the West Side hasn’t had one since 1977, when the stately Beaux Arts Legler library building in...

A former Clemente Community Academy student brought a Title IX complaint against Chicago Public Schools following an alleged incident in 2016 after school. A tattoo on her forearm says "Survive."

Federal officials withhold grant money from Chicago Public Schools, citing failure to protect students from sexual abuse

May 23, 2019 at 1:19 a.m.

Federal officials are withholding millions of dollars in grant money from Chicago Public Schools because of its failure to protect students from sexual violence, a rare step that signals intensifying...

CPS still is churning through the background results of more than 1,800 vendors, including custodians and nurses who work as contractors.

Scores of Chicago Public Schools employees still barred from working with children over background checks

May 23, 2019 at 1:18 a.m.

More than 140 Chicago Public Schools employees still are barred from working in schools as the district scrutinizes their backgrounds, the district said Friday, including six teachers and more than...

Johnson Elementary School, where pedophile Marvin Lovett worked before he was shot dead by one of his teen victims. Lovett was accused of sexually abusing at least 19 boys in the North Lawndale community.

Long-buried report concluded Chicago school principal ignored warnings in horrific sexual abuse case

June 14, 2024 at 6:44 p.m.

Marvin Lovett was a trusted mentor to students at Johnson Elementary School. He also was a pedophile. Lovett used a camera hidden in his apartment closet to make secret pornographic...

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson has committed to sharing background check results publicly, though the district has said it will not answer questions about the outcomes until the process is finished.

Days before school starts, CPS still won’t say how many workers have been disqualified by background checks

May 23, 2019 at 1:13 a.m.

With less than a week to go before the official start of Chicago Public Schools’ academic year, the full results of an enormous effort to check the backgrounds of tens...

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