Orland School District 135 turns sex abuse case involving 2 female students into victim shaming
By Ray Hanania
Everyone remembers in January 2015 when an Elementary School District 135 teacher, Cara Labus, was arrested on charges of sexually abusing two young school girls, aged 14, beginning in 2008 in suburban Orland Park.
The case was mentally and financially burdensome on the family of the two victims, who were actually two of three triplet sisters whose father had just died.
Elementary School District 135 officials who learned of the abuse urged Labus to stop, but they never reported it to police or to state agencies like the Dept. of Children and Family Services, according to the lawsuits filed.
A second, civil lawsuit was also filed by the victims’ family in 2016 but was postponed until the criminal case, which dragged through the system, could be resolved.
It took 12 years for the criminal case to end, in 2020, when Labus, who had moved to a Joliet school, accepted a plea deal, serving two years probation on aggravated battery charges.
That case received much publicity.
What hasn’t received much publicity is the civil lawsuit, which is expected to be presented to a jury this week, with closing arguments that start Monday at the Daley Center.
It turns out District 135 was so embarrassed by the prosecution on behalf the two female victims and by the civil lawsuit that they instructed the school district’s lawyers to file “cross claims,” astonishingly arguing that if the school district is found guilty, the two victim girls, the mother, step-brothers, and Labus’ husband should also be found partially responsible.
This week, District 135 had one of its teachers testify against the two victims, even though the superintendent failed to open up an investigation into the abuse in 2010. The superintendent told Labus her contract was not being renewed because of the allegations. Labus was allowed by District 135 Officials to finish out the school year before going to work at another school in Joliet. During those final months at District 135, she continued the abuse.
I find it shocking that the School District 135 board and administration are having their lawyers bully the victims in a “cross claim,” blaming the victims, the mother, and the husband of the abuser, rather than address the district’s clear failure to protect the two young girls.
But I am not surprised. In my opinion, the “cross claims” against the victims shows how uncaring the District 135 administration and the Board are of the needs of the children that are supposed to be their priority.
It’s called “victim shaming.” Why shame the victims and force them to spend money on attorneys? It’s all about the money. The District 135 board has a long history of caring about money more than the children.
School District 135 has the money to victim shame and twist and distort the case. The victims have to struggle for money and get their story out.
District 135 currently has a $42 million carry-over surplus from last year, which consists of unspent money representing excessive taxes collected from homeowners.
It’s pure greed. Selfishness. These are officials who want to brag that they are not losing money like other governments, like the Village of Orland Park which is manipulating financial data from a TIF to cover mounting debts Mayor Pekau’s village board has accumulated.
Schools in Orland Park where District 135 is located, account for 67.37 percent of all the taxes property owners pay each year. Of that, more than half goes to District 135 (36.08 percent of the entire property tax bill). High School District 230 (Orland Park portion) collects 27.14 percent of the entire property tax bill.)
That’s why Elementary School District 135 and High School District 230 have been silent about Mayor Pekau’s abuse of the Downtown TIF and about his plans to impose three more TIFs which will siphon away property tax monies from the schools. They have bullied a District 230 board member, Mohammed Jaber, to prevent him from raising issues about the TIFs and their silence.
That has not changed much since when I first purchased my home in Orland Park in early 1986.
Greed.
Like District 230, District 135 has great teachers. They both just have lousy administrators and board members, people who are more concerned about their personal political careers and their image than they are about efficiently managing the schools and the teachers, or, to properly report problems, like sexual abuse at District 135, when it happens.
Hopefully the two victims of the School District 135 Labus abuse will get justice. More importantly, other school parents and children who might be victimized won’t be forced to experience similar disturbing struggles to stand up for their rights against the rich, wealthy and mismanaged school district.
Fighting this lawsuit is a sign of serious and deep financial school mismanagement. It’s a shame.
For more information visit www.RayHanania.com.
Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter who has lived in Orland Park since 1986. He writes for many suburban Chicagoland newspapers including The Regional News, and iis the Senior US COrrespondet for Arab News Newspaper, the leading English Language newspaper in the Middle East. For more information on this and other topics, or to get information on subscribing to his columns and video podcasts below, visit his website at hanania.com. You can Email Ray at rghanania@gmail.com.
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