A federal jury on Wednesday ordered the Chicago Board of Education to pay $750,000 to the family of a child beaten at a CPS school in September 2018 after more than four hours of deliberations.
The lawsuit was filed by Asia Gaines after her 9-year-old son was whipped with belts in a bathroom at George W. Tilton Elementary School on Chicago’s West Side in September 2018.
The complaint alleges that the boy’s homeroom teacher, Kristen Haynes, arranged for her friend, Juanita Taylor, to come to school to discipline him.
According to the complaint, Taylor was a distant relative of the child’s father, but was a stranger to the child himself.
The lawsuit alleged that Haynes was known as the school’s disciplinarian throughout her 15 years of teaching, with two adult-sized leather belts known to students as “Mr. Brown” and “Mr. Black.”
Tyler was convicted of domestic violence in a 2020 criminal trial, while Haynes was acquitted of child abuse and endangerment. Haynes was fired from her teaching job following the incident.
On Wednesday, jurors found that Taylor, Haynes and the Chicago Board of Education were liable for the pain and post-traumatic stress the child suffered in connection with the incident.
