Jury awards $750K to family of boy beaten at Chicago Public School in 2018
CHICAGO - A federal jury on Wednesday awarded $750,000 in damages to the family of a boy beaten at a Chicago Public School.
The jury deliberated for 4.5 hours before ordering the Chicago Board of Education to pay the substantial sum, according to the law firm Loevy & Loevy, which represented the victim's family.
The assault occurred in September 2018, when then-9-year-old "J.C." was reportedly whipped with belts in a bathroom at George W. Tilton Elementary School in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. The lawsuit claimed that the boy’s homeroom teacher, Kristen Haynes, had allowed her friend, Juanita Tyler, to come to the school and discipline J.C.
Jurors heard J.C.'s sister testify about hearing her brother's screams from the bathroom during the assault, according to Loevy & Loevy. Testimony also revealed that Haynes was known as the disciplinarian at the school and kept two leather belts in her classroom, referred to by students as "Mr. Brown" and "Mr. Black."
Although Tyler was found guilty of domestic battery in a 2020 criminal trial, Haynes was acquitted of battery and child endangerment. However, in this civil case, the jury found both women and the Chicago Board of Education liable for J.C.'s suffering.
"We are pleased and relieved that this jury saw through the defendants’ ever-changing story and the Board of Education’s attempt to avoid responsibility for the actions of its employee," said one of the family's attorneys, Al Hofeld, Jr., of The Law Offices of Al Hofeld, Jr. LLC.
A copy of the lawsuit can be viewed HERE.