Teacher Arrested, Accused Of Beating 14-Year-Old Boy In Waukegan

WAUKEGAN, IL — A substitute teacher was arrested and fired after beating a child at Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan on Tuesday, authorities said.

At a heated board meeting, community members demanded more action action from administrators, asserting that district officials have allowed staff to keep their jobs after past physical altercations with students.

"Either we're going to have a zero-tolerance policy or we're not. Either it's OK to put our hands on kids or it's not," said board president Brandon Ewing. "It doesn't matter the race, gender or ethnicity. Either we are going to have a zero tolerance or we are not."

Natasha Cade is the mother of 14-year-old Brandon Cole, who was treated at a local hospital for a broken finger, black eye and bruising to his head after he was struck by a District 60 staff member during class. Cole also has a twin brother, younger sister and older brother in local public schools.

"How do I send my son back to school? How do I send them all back to Waukegan? How do you all just give this person a job without looking into his history? From my understanding, he's only been here two weeks. From all three of my children they have told me this man has been a problem since he walked in this building," Cade said.

Cade said teachers and principals have always told her students at Jack Benny are good students who listen and do not cause trouble unless it comes to them.

"But today a teacher assaulted my child. I don't know whether to feel pissed off, confused, hurt, what I do know is that he needs to pay for whatever he's done and you guys need to start to look into who you hire in this district," she said. "There's no reason why my son should have to look like this or be scared to go back to school or be afraid to look at another Black male and be afraid, 'Is he going to hit me, or my brothers, or my sister?'"

Ray Edwards was one of several members of the public who described an incident at Waukegan High School in which an assistant principal allegedly body-slammed a girl.

"This ain't the first time this has happened to a child in our district. It's not. We have staff being assaulted, and I don't see nobody do nothing until those cameras get here," Edwards said, gesturing at local television news crews in attendance Tuesday evening. "They here, so everybody wants to be on TV, everybody wants to be popular, everybody wants to be famous. But what about our babies? They can't read. Math is horrible."

Kevin O'Connor, an attorney for Cole's family, said that District 60 needed to change its culture.

O'Connor noted an incident in the district earlier this year in which school officials allowed a 15-year-old student to be interrogated by police without his parents present. Charges were dropped, and the chief of Waukegan police later apologized after detectives coaxed a false confession out of the student by bribing him with McDonald's.

"It's because you're not taking action on these other cases, not taking actions against these people, that the principals, the assistant principals, the teachers, think this is OK, they think assaulting a student is OK because there's no consequences," O'Connor said.

"Teachers are taught actions mean consequences. That's what they teach their students. And failing to act means consequences. That's what we teach them," he said. "But nothing is happening in this district. Nobody is doing anything about it, so the actions have no consequences until the media comes, then there's consequences, that's what's happening, and they still are trying to get consequences."

Waukegan police did not identify the arrested substitute teacher Tuesday, saying the incident remained under investigation. In a letter to families, district administrators said they were "not in a position to publicly discuss details of the altercation."

District 60 board member Anita Hanna said she has had enough.

"No child deserves this. We're here to educate them, not to hurt them. There's been too many instances of the children being hurt," Hanna said.

"People that know me, I've told them, I've said from the very beginning, from the time I sat here, I will go ballistic, but when it gets to the point where our children are getting hurt, enough is enough, and I'm going to go hydrogen bomb," she said. "Because our children, it's bad enough that they can't read. It's bad enough that others are getting resources and some are not."

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District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia spoke directly to Cole at the meeting, telling the 14-year-old that the district would do everything it could to support him.

"Whatever happened today, regardless of anything, no one ever has the right to put their hands on you, and what I can promise you and your family is that substitute will not be back, and we will work on the issue, and we will address the issue," Plascencia said.

"Please know that we're going to do everything in our power to put those supports around you," she said, "so that you can feel comfortable coming back to Jack Benny and be as successful as you were prior to today, OK honey?"