Hundreds of Chicago Public School (CPS) students were sexually abused by employees over the past ten years, according to a Chicago Tribune report published earlier this month.
Based on police data, both public and confidential records, and interviews with alleged victims, the report found more than 500 allegations of sexual abuse and rape at CPS over the last decade. Since 2011, CPS investigators have discovered "credible evidence of misconduct" in 230 reports of sexual abuse involving adults and students, according to Chicago Tribune, which carried out a wide-ranging investigative report entitled Betrayed.
The newspaper estimated the actual figure could be much higher because the CPS did so little to understand and tackle the problem. The school system employed "ineffective background checks," the Tribune said, which failed to weed out employees with criminal convictions and arrests for sex crimes.
Read the full report here.