URBANA - The Unit 5 and Urbana school districts and former teacher Jon White were named in a second lawsuit Tuesday accusing school officials of failing to prevent White from sexually abusing a student. | Archive: First lawsuit filed in July

Ellyn Bullock, the attorney for a former first-grader at Thomas Paine Elementary School in Urbana, is seeking $1 million for each of 30 counts. The abuse by White took place during the 2005-06 school year, according to the lawsuit.

White, who taught at Colene Hoose Elementary School from 2003 to 2005, is serving 60 years in prison for sexually abusing eight students in Urbana and two in Unit 5.

Jon White

Unit 5 defendants in the suit include Jim Braksick, former Hoose principal; Alan Chapman, former Unit 5 superintendent; Dale Heidbreder, an assistant principal at Hoose; Ed Heinemann, the current Hoose principal; and John Pye, the district's assistant superintendent of operations and human resources.

Six people who were Urbana district employees at the time are named in the lawsuit, along with both districts.

Eighteen of the counts were filed against Urbana, 10 against Unit 5, and two were lodged against White.

White as a dangerous 'hot potato'

Bullock said the Normal district's failure to address White's inappropriate behavior while he was in Unit 5 allowed the Urbana student to be subjected to sexual abuse in the classroom.

"In my mind, she represents a victim hurt by the perfect storm of wrongdoing. Normal knew Jon White was a hot potato, and Urbana took the hot potato pass" after White was forced to resign from Hoose, said Bullock.

Parents of Hoose students complained to school officials about White a year before pornography was found on White's school computer in 2004, said the attorney representing the child referred to as "Jane Doe 3" and her family. Heinemann wrote a letter of recommendation for White after the teacher left his classroom assignment in April 2005 amid complaints from a mother that her daughter was being harassed by White.

The lawsuit alleges that Unit 5 knew that White played a game that required female students to be blindfolded and lick substances from an object and 11 other sexual-related activities. Girls were removed from the lunchroom or after-school programs by White and taken to his classroom, according to the civil lawsuit.

Among the reports ignored by Heidbreder and Braksick was a parent's complaint during the 2003-04 school year that a boy "was terrified of White and did not want to go to his class," the lawsuit said.

Accusations against White include battery and commission of a hate crime related to Jane Doe 3.

The five Unit 5 officials are accused of conspiring from 2003 to 2005 to violate their duty as mandated reporters of abusive behavior.

"Their agreement was that they would not make mandated reports to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services," said the lawsuit. Pye, Chapman, Heinemann, Heidbreder and Braksick referred to White's reputation as a sexual harasser as "He's a dandy," according to the new lawsuit.

In July, Bullock filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of another Urbana student naming both districts. That complaint also accuses school officials of failing to take action to protect students from White.

An attorney for the districts did not immediately return a call for comment on the new lawsuit.