Pantagraph.com | News | Unit 5, Urbana districts sued by Jon White sexual abuse victim

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

milo wrote on Jul 27, 2008 3:07 PM:

" I think landlord may have hit the nail on the head. I too wonder what role the teacher's union had to play in all of this. Certainly, they were standing next to or in front of White as decisions were being made. Then too, where were the other teachers in the buidling? If all of this was going on at school, didn't anyone notice? If no one else noticed anything.... "

BigBrother wrote on Jul 26, 2008 9:21 PM:

" Am I the only person concerned that the main characters in this episode are still employed by Unit 5? "

it's her wrote on Jul 26, 2008 7:07 PM:

" 'How the hell could Unit 5 go before this little girl and say we don't want to pay you for what happened to you? Guess luck!" "

RCS wrote on Jul 26, 2008 5:53 PM:

" The Unit had to know this was on the way. It will be very interesting to see what the two sides work out. A fight will bring total disclosure; a settlement will make the Unit happy. "

albundy54 wrote on Jul 26, 2008 3:02 PM:

" Snake you accuse the victims of making this about money, that makes you a scumbag. Big Brother and Butch along with the general consensus have got it right. The school district should be held liable and I hope the family collects enough money to send a message nationwide to administrators. "

BigBrother wrote on Jul 26, 2008 1:14 PM:

" Unit 5 has not been transparent in releasing the facts surrounding this case. Mostly in an effort to protect themselves from liability. Who in the administration and who on the school board were aware of the actions of White? What child psycholigist was hired to interview any of the children that were involved in his "game"? Did administration officials (Chapman, Pye, board members, Bracksic, Heidbreder) conspire to hide the facts and withhold information from his personel file? Just how many people in Unit 5 knew the truth? Who were they and why are they still employed by the school district? Its time to clean house at unit 5, not shuffle personel and hide the truth!!! "

Coupie wrote on Jul 26, 2008 1:05 PM:

" to: snake...Hellooooo...? It wasn't a banana. "

landlord wrote on Jul 26, 2008 12:49 PM:

" How much are the almighty teachers unions to blame??? I admit to not following this story closely, but is it possible that the teacher was turned in and there was not enough evidence to arrest/prosecute at the time?
I think many horrid teachers are passed along because it would be difficult to give a bad reference with the unions breathing down the administrations backs. I know that it is difficult, if not impossible , to remove a tenured teacher, even if they are lousy. "

The other Dave wrote on Jul 26, 2008 11:29 AM:

" I wonder how much the Privacy law impacted this case? Maybe Unit 5 could not fully disclose information in their recommendation letter because of this silly law. "

xnader wrote on Jul 25, 2008 11:47 PM:

" Don't pass a bad teacher on to another district...if you are smart enough to release a teacher during the school year for behavior, then you should be smart enough to call authorities on him at the same time. Unit 5 and whatever or whomever should stand up and take the punishment. Urbana called authorities, why not Unit 5?????? Urbana was smart enough not to pass him off, why did Unit 5 drop the ball??????? I'm sure we should freeze all $$ for raises, pensions and start looking into who won't get what when all this is over. We can't be afraid to tell administration responsible that, wow, sorry but that money went to keep you out of prison. Move over Mr. White, but it looks like you'll have company...... "

BloNo4Life wrote on Jul 25, 2008 11:35 PM:

" lol are u sure about that cub fan??? because you are incorrect. and LLM. speaking of accountability. suing a third party over an act commited by one person isnt really the exact definition of accountability. if you want accountability, hold john white accountable for his sexual abuse, which already happened. "

cub fan - bud man wrote on Jul 25, 2008 9:25 PM:

" I'm trying to figure out how Jim Braksick and Dale Heidbreder can be sued as they weren't even at Colene Hoose when all of this at Unit #5 went down? "

snake wrote on Jul 25, 2008 7:00 PM:

" 2 million dollars for licking a banana? Just what the heck is the $$ gonna do? Move and start over? Sounds to me like someone is $$ hungry. If the $ was spent right, you could get 2,500 months of therapy which come up to 208 years, at once a month. "

isunormalil wrote on Jul 25, 2008 4:58 PM:

" LLM is correct. A past employer isn't allowed to air their dirty laundry to a future employer. It's very minimal what can be discussed from one employer to another. For example, dates of employment etc. "

Sirhc01 wrote on Jul 25, 2008 4:34 PM:

" TO: 75th Ranger, in regaurds to your comment about the NPD. I have to disagree with that. It seems to me that they have a new sub-station on east vernon at the quick n easy there. Everytime I pass by there I see 3 or 4 patrol cars there. I stopped in one night and there were six officers in there just standing around the soda/coffee area. "

BigBrother wrote on Jul 25, 2008 4:22 PM:

" Surprise!!!! The behind the door conspiracy begins!!!! Lets see how forth coming the board is about the truth in this matter. My bet is that we will be told nothing in order to protect the school board members and the administration from public scrutiny. It will be business as usual hiding the truth from the taxpayers. "

milo wrote on Jul 25, 2008 3:43 PM:

" It seems to me that it is easy to judge now that there has been a complete investigation and there are actual facts available. I wonder what facts the Unit 5 administrators were looking at when they were making decisions about Jon White. "

LLM wrote on Jul 25, 2008 3:35 PM:

" Irishman and others: While I completely agree that a recommendation was absolutely unfortunate, employers are not allowed to tell other potential employers calling for a reference anything about job performance. They may corroborate hire/end hire dates but I believe that is all. They can't say, "Oh by the way..." or answer questions related to job performance. The letter of recommendation written for this guy is probably what is going to be looked at very carefully. I could be completely wrong, though on that though...

My Two Cents: Are you talking about this situation alone when talking about 'crimes against children' or are there others? I'm just curious if there is more. "

75th Ranger wrote on Jul 25, 2008 2:22 PM:

" JMK----the insurance company will pay the bill, but the increased premiums will hit the tax payer. My question is, how, if at all, Alan Chapman will be defended as he is retired? Will he be defended by a Unit 5 paid attorney? Anyways, where were the checks and balances in the Unit 5 school district that allowed this idiot to leave without a police investigation? If the police did investigate, and found "nothing wrong" shouldn't they be held responsible as well? I'm not going to slag the NPD, too badly, but they seem more obsessed with catching under aged college students drinking than catching the real criminals in society? "

My Two Cents wrote on Jul 25, 2008 2:18 PM:

" Long overdue. It's about time Unit Five face a multi-million dollar lawsuit for the crimes against children that they have allowed to occur. They don't seem to understand the word "accountability" - perhaps this suit will hasten their understanding of the word. Let's see some School Superintendants go to jail then maybe this equine excrement will cease in Unit Five. "

what r u talking about willis? wrote on Jul 25, 2008 1:16 PM:

" We all knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. This should be interesting. "

JMK wrote on Jul 25, 2008 1:13 PM:

" I certainly feel bad for the kid(s), but it sucks that the taxpayers end up footing the bill. "

BN97 wrote on Jul 25, 2008 11:53 AM:

" Unit 5 did drop the ball. I also hope that the specific people named before who knew about problems and ignored them are also punished in some way. This could have been stopped very early on if certain folks there would have done their job. "

Butch wrote on Jul 25, 2008 11:42 AM:

" Anyone want to bet that this will be settled out of court. No way the school districts want to air any more dirty laundry in public. "

irishman652 wrote on Jul 25, 2008 11:39 AM:

" Unit 5 really dropped the ball when they gave this guy a recommendation.
Unbelievable. Hope the parent and child get everything they are intitled to. "

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