North Cook News

Jillian Rose Bernas demands more accountability for school officials in the wake of a Chicago-Tribune report that found approximately 40 cases of sexual abuse among students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system.

Bernas, who is running as the Republican candidate for the 56th House District, believes school officials and lawmakers failed the students and taxpayers of Illinois because the abuse was overlooked for at least a decade.

“Victims should not have to wait that long for officials to act,” Bernas told the North Cook News. “The general assembly voted to send hundreds of millions of dollars to CPS, money diverted away from our local schools. These dollars should be going to students, (but) instead it is going to pay for administrators who failed to keep children safe and report cases of sexual assault to the authorities.”

The abuse ranged from groping to rape, affecting victims from “top athletes and honor-roll students, children struggling to read and teenagers seeking guidance,” the report states.  

While many of those cases documented sexual misconduct at the hands of adult school employees, a second installment also uncovered 40 cases where both the abuser and the victim were special-needs students.

The headline for one of the articles blames “lax supervision” within the schools for the prevalence of student-on-student crimes. Bernas suggests a lack of accountability at the top played a role as well.

“Students, no matter where they are, should feel safe in their schools,” Bernas said.

Bernas faults her opponent, Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg), and other lawmakers for failing to demand adequate oversight of school officials. During the 2017 legislative session, Mussman served on an appropriations committee for elementary and secondary education.

“Michelle Mussman has used our district to write blank checks to CPS to fund her friends, while the most vulnerable students suffer,” Bernas said. “We no longer want to be complicit in her inaction.”

The candidate said student safety should be a top priority and warned that CPS officials should avoid creating just another bureaucracy to address the problem.

“These administrators should face consequences, and as a state representative, I would demand accountability for their inaction,” she said.