Parents of 3 Chicago Public Schools students file suit alleging gym teacher groomed, sexually assaulted them
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The parents of three Chicago Public Schools students have accused former Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary School gym teacher Andrew Castro, 37, of sexually assaulting three boys from the same family over four years until early 2022.
“He billed himself as a friend of the family,” attorney Cass Casper said at a news conference Tuesday, regarding a civil rights suit the parents filed in federal court in October.
“Ultimately, he gained their trust enough to have the kids over to his home,” where Castro allegedly raped one of the children three times, Casper said.
“It’s hard to talk about. But, here’s the message we really want to send: Why was this P.E. teacher put in the position to begin with? ... Why didn’t anybody at this school see the signs,” Casper said.
The complaint, which also names Chicago Public Schools and multiple Federico Garcia Lorca staffers as defendants, alleges Castro took special interest in the students — two brothers and a cousin living in the same low-income household.
In frequently giving the students rides, attending their soccer games and buying them food and presents, the complaint alleges, “It was common knowledge among faculty and students that Castro ha(d) formed a highly unusual and inappropriate relationship with the Minor Plaintiffs,” and staff didn’t do enough to protect them.
After a different student accused Castro of inappropriately touching him in May 2021, the suit says Castro was suspended from teaching at the Avondale school. Administrators sent all parents an email at the time regarding an allegation that an unnamed staff member engaged inappropriately with a student. But, the complaint alleges, “because nobody from FGL Elementary ... warned them that Castro had been suspended because of inappropriate sexual behavior and could be a sexual predator,” the children’s parents didn’t prevent them from sleeping over at Castro’s home.
The CPS Office of Inspector General does not comment on complaints received by the office.
The sexual abuse allegedly escalated and didn’t come to light for another two years, when one of the boys was found harming himself in May and confided in his adult sister, according to the suit.
Castro was charged with criminal sexual assault in June and has been held without bond since, according to Cook County sheriff’s office records.
“The impact of these traumatic events on our clients is profound and long-lasting. It is crucial to recognize that this isn’t an isolated incident,” Patrycja Karlin, a lawyer for the parents, said at a news conference Tuesday.
The Lorca Elementary accusations come after a Farragut High School security guard was charged with criminal sexual assault of a student in July — and after years of reckoning over what federal officials deemed in 2019 to be “appalling,” districtwide “failures” in CPS’ handling of sexual abuse allegations.
After investigating more than 3,000 complaints filed over four years and involving 400 CPS schools, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights entered the district into a legally binding agreement, mandating reforms and federal monitoring through the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
Amid the scandal, the OIG’s office formed its now 30-member Sexual Allegations Unit after a Chicago Tribune report exposed conflicts of interest in investigations formerly helmed by the CPS Law Department. The OIG’s office now investigates all adult-to-student sexual misconduct complaints, referring cases involving other forms of student harassment to CPS’ Office of Student Protections.
In an annual presentation before the Board of Education last January, Deputy Inspector General Amber Nesbitt, head of the Sexual Allegations Unit, said adult-to-student sexual misconduct was the most common complaint received by the agency in the prior year. The more than 300 complaints substantiated by the Sexual Allegations Unit since its 2018 inception include a finding of “systemic sexual misconduct” at Marine Leadership Academy involving 12 employees and one volunteer, and four other cases that have resulted in criminal charges, involving two high school teachers, a JROTC instructor and an elementary school teacher.
According to another member of the Lorca Elementary parents’ legal team, lawyer and former alderman Bob Fioretti, the Sexual Allegations Unit had 225 active investigations as of September.
