Mother fights to get help for her son who says he was abused at a Chicago elementary school

By Carol Thompson, Suzanne Le Mignot

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — A 6-year-old boy tells his mother he’s being abused by classmates and teachers at Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary.

The boy is not alone. One in five students at the school reported not feeling safe or comfortable with their teachers.

The boy, Karter, is a smiling, giggly kid.

“He brings life to any room he enters,” said his mom, Shaneka Crain.

“It’s been very difficult to raise him because I was a single mom,” Crain said.

The youngster also has diagnosed behavioral and developmental delays.

“He has a severe problem going on,” Crain said, “and it takes, you know, gentleness and it takes love and caring people to work with him.”

That is why Karter is in special education classes in the Chicago Public Schools district.

In the 2022-23 school year, he attended Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary School on the city’s Near West Side.

Karter was in first grade that year. Within months of school starting, he began coming home with stories that were anything but gentle and caring.

In December 2022, he was bitten on the hand by another student. Crain snapped a photo of the bite mark.

“I wasn’t notified,” Crain said. “There wasn’t any accident reports, incident reports. I didn’t receive one phone call.”

The incidents escalated.

“He came home with multiple bruises on different occasions,” said Crain.

Karter told stories of teachers that were not kind.

“I was trying to eat the popcorn and she snatched it from me,” he said.

And, in March 2023 he told his mom about two of his teachers hitting him.

“Ms. (redacted) pop me in my head and Ms. (redacted) pop me with the market in my head too,” he said.

Crain filed a police report documenting the alleged abuse. She also placed Karter in therapy. The notes from one session show Karter explaining why he was there was “because a teacher hit him.”

“My son needs help. He needs therapeutic help,” said Crain.

In addition, she filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS). She says she learned the same day she filed her complaint against one of the teachers, an anonymous complaint was filed against her.

“When you stand up for your child, they started to retaliate on me. They put DCFS cases on me,” she said.

DCFS said both complaints were determined to be unfounded.

Crain also claims she used to volunteer at school but was banned from the classroom when she started speaking up for her child.

She saved texts between herself and school leaders that went on for months. She wanted a meeting to address her concerns, but wasn’t getting a sufficient response.

“Nobody’s listening. Nobody’s hearing me. Nobody cares,” she said.

Dett’s Troubling History Crain and her son are not the only ones reporting feeling unsafe at Dett Elementary.

That same year Karter brought safety concerns to his mother, the annual My Voice, My School Surveys revealed concerns voiced by students and teachers at Dett:

20% of students reported not feeling safe or comfortable with their teachers 57% of students reported not trusting their teachers 28% of teachers reported not trusting each other In addition the school is historically among the worst elementary schools for student misconduct.

In the 2021-2022 school year, Dett was one of 11 elementary schools with more than 300 student misconduct incidents. That made it among the worst 2% of district elementary schools.

In the 2022-23 school year, Dett improved. It reported slightly more than 150 misconduct incidents. That put it in the worst 10% of elementary schools that year. That was the year a classmate bit Karter’s hand.

“I would just like to say how disappointed and angry and furious that I am because they are aware of things that are happening and it’s like they’re failing our children,” said Crain. “They failed us as a whole. Failed us, failed us, failed us, and failed our children.”

Dett has been designated an “Intensive” school the past two school years, meaning it’s among the lowest-performing 5% of schools in Illinois.

The student is currently made up of 94% low-income students, 36% of students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP), and 15% homeless students.

In 2020, the school was placed under a two-year improvement plan by CPS.

“I think they need to start listening to the parents. Parents’ voices definitely and concerns need to be heard,” Crain said. “I feel they need to have a lot of training, retraining, or whatever it is for people who actually work with kids.”

The outcome

By the end of Karter’s school year, Crain finally got a face-to-face meeting with school leaders and the teachers Karter accused of hitting him.

She was allowed to record the meeting where she told those in attendance, “I’m not going to let nobody put their hands on my child and get away with it.”

That meeting ended without resolution.

Eventually, Karter was moved to another school for the most recent two school years. His new school has fewer misconduct cases, fewer special education students. It is still one of the lowest-performing schools in the state, requiring “comprehensive support” to improve, according to the Illinois School Report Card.

Crain hopes her coming forward will result in real change as soon as possible, not only for her son, but for other CPS students.

“I just want my voice to be heard when it comes to my son, because this cannot, it can’t be acceptable,” said Crain.

CBS News Chicago reached out to CPS for comment on Crain’s claims about the teachers and the problems surrounding Dett Elementary and have not received a response at the time this story was published.

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