Lessons in Betrayal: Former Chicago Public Schools students say they were groomed by teachers ...Middle East

CHICAGO  –  High school hallways are full of memories.

Several former students form Little Village Lawndale High School say theirs include teachers and predatory behavior:

“… We’ve been hiding for years,” one former student said.

“…This was part of a scheme,” said another.

“He would say things like ‘you have to try different flavors of ice cream,’” according to a 2013 graduate.

“He had asked me to do oral sex,” said a 2019 graduate.

“Abuse… He abused me,” said a 2016 graduate.

A months-long investigation by NBC 5 Investigates has uncovered allegations of grooming and teacher misconduct dating back more than a decade at one Chicago Public School.

As part of our reporting, we interviewed 12 women who graduated between 2009 and 2019.  Most of them asked to have their identities be withheld due to the sexual nature of what they allege transpired. Their allegations involve various teachers or administrators.

Most of the sexual encounters, they say, happened after they turned 18 or weeks or months after graduation. But others told us it happened while they were still high school students.

NBC 5 Investigates filed multiple Freedom of Information Acts requests – collecting hundreds of pages of teacher personnel and disciplinary files.

We also reviewed emails, lawsuits, internal investigative records and conducted interviews with former students, teachers and attempted to talk to the accused or their attorneys.

Here is what we found:

Taken together, our investigation underscores that Chicago Public Schools – the nation’s third largest school district – is still working to addressing gaps in information sharing and is facing criticism for the time it takes to investigate sexual misconduct allegations involving teachers and students.

In 2018, a Chicago Tribune series “Betrayed” uncovered systemic issues of sexual abuse throughout the district.

The next year – in 2019 – the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found Chicago Public School’s handling of sexual harassment and abuse complaints “had been in a state of disarray.”

The district promised to make corrections.

The creation of the Sexual Allegations Unit – in direct response to the Chicago Tribune series – was designed to solely investigate allegations of teacher on student misconduct.

NBC 5 Investigates found the unit has had at least four permanent or interim inspector generals since its creation in 2018. Beyond that, there’s been internal turnover among investigators and the unit has been without a top staff attorney who signs off on investigations for more than a year, according to a former investigator Stephanie Brown, potentially creating a bottleneck for clearing investigations.

During a recent Chicago Board of Education meeting in April, the current Inspector General Phil Wagenknecht told board members that caseloads for investigators have been dramatically reduced for investigators in recent years and that the office was in a more manageable position than in years past.

The former students speak up

Ana Solano graduated from Little Village Lawndale High School in 2012. And within a year, she says she began a relationship with her former sociology teacher, Dennis Kass, a Golden Apple award-winning educator and attorney who taught sociology and ran a legal clinic at Infinity High School – one of four smaller schools that make up the Little Village Lawndale campus.

Ana shared with us photos, Facebook chats, and airline tickets that she says help chronicle their four-year relationship.

It ended, she says, because she wanted monogamy.

“And then I found out, I wasn’t the only one,” she said.

In April of 2022, Ana made a Facebook post claiming that she had been groomed.

went viral – garnering 250 comments and nearly as many shares.

Other students began writing on her post or sharing similar stories.

“I was supposed to stay quiet…” wrote one former student.

Another post by a former student  – this one full of expletives – claimed that she too was manipulated into having sex with Kass after graduation.

The women spoke with Chicago Police. NBC 5 Investigates obtained copies of the reports through a Freedom of Information Act request.

One woman told CPD that Kass told her “nobody can find out about him having a relationship with a former student… because it would jeopardize his job and legal clinic.”

Chicago Police took the reports, but closed the case as non-criminal – noting it was “being handled by the CPS Inspector General’s Office.

Another student, Jasmine, who asked that we not use her last name, alleges she too had a sexual encounter with Kass months after she graduated.

“So I graduated in May or June of 2016 and I think we slept together in December of 2016,” Jasmine said.

Jasmine told us that Kass’s in-class discussions would challenge students’ thinking on monogamy, marriage and even sex.

“And he would consistently use the reference of flavors of ice cream. ‘Why are you stuck on vanilla when there’s chocolate, Oreo and rainbow or whatever?’”

Other former students we interviewed showed us messages they received via Facebook messenger from Kass expressing interest in meeting up shortly after they graduated or were 18.

“So I definitely think that this was a scheme, you know…that started in high school and panned out outside of high school only to make it a lot easier for somebody to fall into that trap,” said another student.

District records show that Kass was pulled from the classroom in March of 2022.

He resigned in the next month and was placed on a temporary “Do Not Hire” list – or DPI – while the investigation into “allegations of serious misconduct” was pending.

We tried calling and emailing and looking for Kass at listed addresses.

His attorney, David Hemenway, said in an email that Kass would not comment but that he had expressed his concerns to the inspector general’s office about certain aspects of their investigation and that Kass remains hopeful that they will find he “did not engage in conduct violating CPS policies.”

In a follow-up email, Hemenway added that while “Kass was frustrated with the pace of the OIG investigation…” and that he resigned from his position as a teacher with CPS after “being subjected to stalking, harassment and threats to his life/safety” as result of social media posts regarding “unsubstantiated allegations against him.”

NBC 5 Investigates’ review of district records show Kass isn’t alone.

In the past eight years, at least five teachers and two administrators – all from schools that make Little Village Lawndale High School have been accused of misconduct.

“They would tell me that it looked like he was eating me with his eyes,” said a 2019 graduate who asked to be referred to as “Michelle.”

She told NBC 5 Investigates that the former Infinity principal Charles N. Smith would leer at her and other students.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m getting a little emotional,” she said.

“Michelle” turned 18 and graduated in June of 2019 and says when she went to pick up her diploma and school records, Smith asked for her phone number.

An internal investigative record from the inspector general – obtained by NBC 5 Investigates – indicates that Smith and “Michelle” began exchanging calls and texts two days after she graduated – including on July 1 – where the report shows “Michelle” sent Smith 26 text messages; he sent her 42.

Week after she graduated, “Michelle” says they had sex.

“He just went to the bank afterwards and decided to give me $100 for me to spend on myself something nice,” she said.

In February of 2023, Chicago Public Schools records show Smith was removed as principal and resigned months later in June of 2023. A July 5 letter shows he was placed on a temporary “Do Not Hire” list – or DPI – while an investigation into “allegations of serious misconduct” was pending.

The next month, he got a new job working as an assistant principal in the Elgin school district.

On his application for that position, he was asked if he has ever been the subject of an allegation of sexual misconduct or if he resigned while an investigation was pending.

He marked “no” for both.

We were not able to reach Smith directly.

In a statement, an attorney representing Smith, Stephanie Nathanson, said that her client “vehemently denies” the allegations and that:

“… Mr. Smith fully cooperated with CPS/OIG in this lengthy investigation and is confident that once it is completed, accusations will be unfounded, and he will be cleared of any allegations of wrongdoing.”

Attorneys representing the former students acknowledge the cases against them present a challenge for district investigators because most were already 18 or were recent graduates when they allege the sex occurred.

But they argue that should not matter, that their clients were being groomed before that.

“The number of male educators at that school that were in… were doing this is staggering,” said Ashley Pileika, an attorney representing three of the women.

Marty Gould, an attorney representing other former students, said: “I mean, the culture that we’re looking at here, we have multiple different, administrators and teachers that are grooming and preying on students and sexually abusing them – it is just beyond the pale.”

Gould represents a former Little Village student, Jane Doe, who attended the Social Justice High School and was in the Class of 2016.

She says the former dean of the Social Justice High School, Brian Crowder groomed her and sexually abused her throughout her time in high school.

Crowder is accused of posing as Jane’s stepfather so that she could get abortions while underage.

Crowder was fired by Chicago Public Schools and is currently facing a June trial for several charges including aggravated sexual assault.

An attorney for Crowder told NBC 5 Investigates that he has pleaded not guilty and he is looking forward to his day in court.

NBC 5 Investigates spoke with Jane Doe and asked her to characterize what happened to her.

“Abuse. I would say abuse. He abused me,” she said.

District and OIG respond

In a statement,  a spokeswoman for Chicago Public School said that Chicago Public Schools notifies the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) whenever an individual with an educator license is designated as Do Not Hire (DNH). This designation is also documented in the educator’s personnel file to ensure clarity for any future employers conducting reference checks.

In an earlier statement, CPS said that they only notify districts when they request the information – but that districts are able to request information for subjects on both the Do Not Hire list and the more temporary DPI – which is short for those on a Do Not Hire list while their investigations are pending.

The statement from the district added that: “CPS works closely with the OIG to support timely, thorough investigations. The Office of Student Protections and Title IX (OSP) offers support to impacted students, including recent graduates and former students, involved in OIG investigations.”

District records show that the Office of Inspector General substantiated misconduct allegations against Crowder and two other educators from Little Village High School – Jesus Sanchez and Michael Abeja.

A large investigation involving Kass, Smith and others is expected to be completed in June – it’s still pending meaning there’s been no finding of wrongdoing.

When NBC 5 Investigates asked the Office of Inspector General what is taking so long, Inspector General Phil Wagenknecht said that “due to the breadth and nature of this case, it required an extensive and lengthy investigation.”

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