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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Girl Says She Was Sexually Assaulted in P.E.

CHICAGO (CN) - A Chicago Bulls College Prep charter high school student was sexually assaulted by outsiders when the schools made her run around the block during gym class, the girl claims in court.

The mother and daughter sued the Noble Network of Charter Schools, Chicago Bulls College Prep, and the Chicago Board of Education, in Cook County Court.

Chicago Bulls College Prep is the Noble Network's largest campus, with 1,100 students, when the girl attended it in September 2012.

The school is supported by the Chicago Bulls Charities, and is just steps away from the United Center, home of the Bulls.

The United Center is in an area notorious for crime.

The mom claims her daughter was "physically attacked and sexually assaulted by four male assailants" during a required run around the campus, on Sept. 19, 2012.

The girl and her mom claim: "Noble knew or should have known the route the gym class was required to run would encounter the general public, not just students who attended the school.

"Noble knew or should have known that the neighborhood surrounding the Chicago Bulls College Prep school located at 2040 West Adams Street in the City of Chicago, was a high-crime area."

More than 4,000 crimes were reported in the school's neighborhood, Police District 012, from September 2011 to September 2012. The week she was assaulted, 132 crimes were committed in the area, the family says.

Crime is so rampant that the assault was "reasonably foreseeable," the girl and her mother says. Teachers escort students to and from the El and other public transportation, according to the complaint.

But "added security measures were not taken when students participated in required physical education classes in order to ensure student safety during class times," the lawsuit states.

"Only one teacher was present during the gym class and did not participate in running with the students around the block, but rather stood at the beginning of the route and waited for students to finish the required activity."

A spokeswoman for Noble Charter Schools told Courthouse News: "We are not able to discuss these allegations."

Chicago Bulls College Prep's student body is 97 percent minority, and 89 percent low income. One hundred percent of the school's first senior class, the class of 2013, were accepted to four-year universities.

Another Noble campus, Noble Street College Prep, was selected this year as one of America's Top 25 transformative high schools by the Daily Beast.

The family seeks medical expenses and damages for negligence and willful and wanton conduct.

They are represented by Jeffrey Kroll with Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, who did not respond to a request for comment.

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