Mother claims Joliet Schools District 86 failed to protect son from bullying

A Joliet Public Schools District 86 parent claims in a lawsuit that district officials failed to protect her son from bullying and racial harassment while he was attending M.J. Cunningham Elementary School.

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 11 by a woman identified only as A.S. on behalf of her son, identified in the suit as S.J. The lawsuit claims that district officials failed to take the appropriate action to stop the bullying and harassment of her son and failed to follow their own policies.

The defendants in the case include the District 86 Board of School Inspectors; Superintendent Theresa Rouse; former Cunningham Principal Luis Gonzalez; the school; and Dwayne Williams, the district’s director of equity and student services.

When contacted about the lawsuit, District 86 spokeswoman Sandy Zalewski said she cannot comment on pending litigation.

Gonzalez resigned as Cunningham’s principal June 30 for “another position,” according to district records.

The lawsuit claimed that Gonzalez never reported any bullying incident involving the student to Rouse or the Board of School Inspectors. The lawsuit also claimed that District 86 staff never reported S.J.’s abuse to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

In June, Gonzalez gave A.S. a student journal regarding S.J. that referenced “more acts of harassment and physical abuse,” according to the lawsuit.

“This had never been reported to A.S., the parent or any other agency despite Gonzalez’s awareness of the attacks from the student journal,” according to the lawsuit.

S.J. first reported that he was being bullied and physically abused to his teacher in September 2023, according to the lawsuit. The teacher called S.J.’s parents and told them that another student stabbed their son with a pencil, according to the lawsuit.

Afterward, Gonzalez spoke with the mother and a police report was filed, but no further action was taken by the school, the teacher or Gonzalez, according to the lawsuit.

Between September 2023 and May, S.J. was “subject to multiple verbal harassment by another student and physical harm, including a beating,” according to the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, Rouse and Williams were made aware of the bullying of S.J., and none of the students “identified as perpetrators of the bullying/racial harassment” were “ever disciplined for their actions by the defendants.”