There was a criminal case that flew through the courts here recently. It involved a pretty disgusting man named Jon White, and I think I can use his name legally since he is now serving a 60 year jail term after being convicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual battery. He was a second-grade teacher at Thomas Paine Elementary school, and the girls he abused were 7- and 8-years old.
Yeah. Pretty darn sick.
Well, of those 10 counts, only eight were related to felony actions here in Champaign County. The other two came from when White was an elementary school teacher in McLean County, which is the next county over. The sicko was fired from that job in McLean for viewing pornography on a school computer and having inappropriate communication with a fifth grader, and yet he able to obtain a letter of recommendation from the principal who presumably fired him.
When the sexual assaults became known here in Champaign County, White's recent past in McLean County became grist for the inevitable lawsuits that followed. The issue of whether or not he was guilty was never in question, apparently. He pled guilty to lesser charges in order to avoid a jury trial, which thankfully also spared the Jane Doe victims from having to testify. Several civil lawsuits against White from victims' families are pending, I think.
The real issue became the fact that the families filed numerous Jane Doe lawsuits against the Urbana School District that hired White, alleging malfeasance in the hiring process. The families claimed that whoever was in charge of hiring for Urbana schools decided to go ahead on White, even though they knew the reasons for his firing from the McLean County schools.
There must have been some logic in that argument. The local paper just reported that the first of those lawsuits was just settled for $300,000 and that there be no public admission of liability on behalf of the Urbana School District. So, the hiring manager was not liable for the actions of the person who was hired, but they're going to pay $300K for the family's pain and suffering. And now, the bar has been set for all the other Jane Does who were abused by this sicko.
Is $300K really what that deep-seated emotional scarring is worth for a little girl who has to live with that the rest of her life?
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One update: another of the Jane Doe lawsuits against the Urbana School District recently settled for a higher amount, $390K in present-value money (their term). Must be a structured settlement.
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