Former Chicago Public School students sue district for failing to stop abuse by security guard
Chicago IL June 9 2018 Kyana Aguilar was groped twice by a security guard at Hubbard High School when she was a junior there. The guard is in prison for criminal sexual abuse and aggravated battery.
Two former Hubbard High School students have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging the school district failed to protect them from a security guard who later was prosecuted for sexual abuse.
The two lawsuits, brought by 22-year-old Kyana Aguilar and 21-year-old Andreanna Paris, allege that the school showed “an utter indifference to, or conscious disregard for” student safety by ignoring early reports of misconduct by the guard.
In separate complaints, both filed June 1 in Cook County Circuit Court, the two women allege that Hubbard administrators were told that security guard Walter C.J. Wells inappropriately hugged and groped students and made sexual comments long before early 2014, when Aguilar and Paris stepped up to complain.
Both women are featured in the Tribune investigation “Betrayed,” about sexual abuse and assault in Chicago Public Schools. Each suit seeks a judgment of at least $50,000 against the school board.
Wells was allowed to keep working in the school for about a month while district investigators looked into groping allegations from four girls, including Paris, the Tribune found. He was suspended after Aguilar came forward to say she had been groped.
“There were two perpetrators here. There’s Walter Wells, who did this to them, but there’s also the school board, who essentially failed them in a way that was reckless and in disregard of this special responsibility they had to keep them safe,” said Alexis Chardon, attorney for the women. “I think it really injured them.”
Responding to the suit, district spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in an email: “While CPS cannot comment on pending litigation, we want to make sure that all members of the public understand our plan for moving forward and our commitment to support students who report sexual violence.”
The district previously told the Tribune that it did not know of any reports to child welfare authorities related to Wells before 2014.
Former students including Paris, as well as a former school employee, told the Tribune they had disclosed Wells’ inappropriate touching and sexual comments to counselor and athletic director Joyce Jones and one other school administrator as far back as the 2011-12 school year.
“I told somebody (thinking) hopefully something would be done,” Paris told the Tribune this week. “They just swept it under the rug.”
One former student also testified during Wells’ criminal trial that she had told Jones about the abuse before 2014.
The Tribune has made repeated attempts to contact Jones for comment, but she has not responded.
Wells was convicted of criminal sexual abuse and aggravated battery of Aguilar and is serving a three-year prison sentence.
Wells twice groped Aguilar at school when she was a junior, both times asking for a hug but then squeezing her buttocks or pinching her nipple. Paris and other former Hubbard students also testified at trial as “proof of other crimes,” describing how Wells groped them.
