WESTCHESTER, Ill. — A lawsuit has been filed against the Westchester School District after a former teacher was charged with sexually abusing a student more than 20 years ago.
The civil lawsuit filed last week in Cook County Court follows the criminal case that was filed in August against Dawn Chester.
Chester, 54, who has also gone by the last names of Anderson and Lach, was arrested and charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse last summer.
She taught at Westchester Middle School from 1993 to 2000.
Between 1998 and 2000, Chester was the victim’s teacher and girls volleyball coach. Detectives in Westchester said Chester started showing “personal interest” in the student, who was 11-years-old at the time the abuse began.
The former teacher allegedly wrote the victim dozens of letters and notes, arranged time for them to be alone and sexually abused her.
In the letters, Chester wrote things such as, “When I hear somebody call your name, I can feel my heart smile;” and “I really care about you…You never tell me how you feel about me anymore. Find a few minutes and write down exactly how you feel about me.”
Westchester-middle-school-teacher-lettersDownload
Two years into this alleged abuse, the victim’s mother found the letters and notified Westchester Middle School and the district.
Chester was given the opportunity to resign, which she did in 2000.
It wasn’t until earlier this year that the victim, who is now in her 30s, saw that Chester had been working for more than 20 years as a teacher in suburban Berkeley, Illinois.
The victim immediately reported the offenses to the school and local authorities.
Chester was placed on administrative leave from Berkeley School District 87 pending their investigation. In addition, she was indicted on a felony charge of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse of a victim under 18 by someone in a position of trust.
“These aren’t the musings of two teenagers with crushes on each other. This is a grown woman in a position of authority over a 12-year-old girl, writing these letters. These letters that continued for multiple years. Lets be perfectly clear, our client owed this grown woman nothing. What was owed was to our client. What was owed was the protection to be a child, to go to school, to be protected. That was owed by the Westchester Middle School, by the Westchester school district and those in the position of authority. And they failed,” said attorney David Rashid.
Back in August when the criminal charges were filed, District 92.5 released the following statement:
Today, District Administration was contacted by the Westchester Police Department and informed of the arrest of Dawn Chester, who was employed as a science teacher at Westchester Middle School from 1993-2000. Please see the Police statement on this matter here. The District was initially contacted by the Police in late June of this year and informed that a former student had reported that she had been sexually abused more than 20 years ago as a 6th-7th grade student when Ms. Chester (originally hired as Ms. Anderson and later known as Ms. Lach) was her teacher and volleyball coach.
No current Westchester 92.5 administrators were employed at the District at that time. A review of Ms. Chester’s personnel file indicates that the District was made aware of concerning written notes and email communications between the former teacher and student in 2000. Our records affirm that the District worked with the family to address their concerns, ultimately resulting in Ms. Chester’s resignation in 2000.
The District has cooperated fully with the Westchester Police in their investigation of this matter. This included providing them copies of the notes and emails between the former teacher and student received as part of the family’s original report to the District in 2000.
Despite the fact that these allegations relate to a report of incidents from more than 20 years ago, we felt it important to communicate with our families and staff about this matter directly. Furthermore, we want to emphasize that Westchester 92.5 is committed to protecting and ensuring the safety of our learning community and the well-being of our students. As a part of our pre-employment process, we conduct an employment history review, criminal background checks, and cross-checks with federal and state sexual offender databases. In addition, all faculty and staff participate in annual mandatory training regarding the parameters of appropriate conduct with students, as well as other topics related to maintaining a safe school environment. Each year, all District faculty and staff also affirm in writing their acknowledgment of a duty to report any suspicions or knowledge of abuse or neglect of a student.
There is no record that Westchester 92.5 was contacted by any prospective employer of, or provided an employment reference, for Ms. Chester. The current Illinois School Code provides additional protections that require a school district to report to the State Superintendent of Education and the applicable regional superintendent of schools any teacher of whom there is reasonable cause to believe has committed an intentional act of abuse or neglect, or an act of sexual misconduct, involving a minor child, that resulted in the teacher’s dismissal or resignation from the school district. Such reporting can result in the revocation of a teaching license. No such requirement was in place in 2000.
Westchester School District 92.5
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