Watchdog slams CPS employees for bad behavior, ‘blurred’ boundaries enabling sexual misconduct, $1+ million in fraud

A recent report chastised Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for allowing a campus culture enabling sexual misconduct in the wake of a former dean’s conviction of committing sex abuse and assault against a student.

“Our investigations revealed a culture at the time where professional boundaries between staff members and students were blurred,” Philip Wagenknecht, the district’s inspector general, told Chalkbeat Chicago. “It was not unusual for staff to message students on social media, gossip with them, and treat them like friends rather than students. This could have been seen as normal and may have made it easier for bad actors to go unnoticed.”

Meanwhile, Wagenknecht’s CPS office of the Inspector General (OIG) also outlined several instances of fraud throughout the district, requiring the district to repay more than $1 million in restitution.

One of the fraud cases involved a staffer who had consistently overstated enrollment numbers in a federally funded program for years, despite being previously flagged by the office.

“With respect to fraud and financial mismanagement, this was arguably the most egregious conduct covered in the annual report,” Wagenknecht said. “It wasn’t a clerical mistake or an accident.”

Two schools singled out for sexual misconduct

The report, released Jan. 7, alluded to the recent case involving Brian Crowder, former dean at Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice convicted of “aggravated criminal sexual assault and other charges,” according to Chalkbeat. 

However, a culture of “rampant sexual misconduct” extended beyond this high school to other nearby facilities. 

“Seven other former teachers, administrators, and staff at that school and at one of three campuses sharing a building with it also engaged in inappropriate behavior toward students and recent graduates during the 2010s,” Chalkbeat observed. “These issues were first reported by NBC5 Chicago last year, which identified the second school as Infinity Math, Science, and Technology High School and named two educators involved.” 

The report accused employees of grooming students “for sexual relationships in person and via social media, and sometimes pursued them as soon as they graduated,” according to Chalkbeat.  

“According to the report, these issues were so widespread that staff at the inspector general’s office spoke with one former student who had faced advances from three teachers: one during her junior year, one in her senior year, and one soon after she graduated.” 

In a particularly noteworthy example, one teacher running a legal aid clinic “presented himself as a protector of girls and women — only to make overtures to numerous former students months after they graduated and have sex with at least four of them, the watchdog found.” 

The report notes “the bulk of the misconduct … took place before 2018, when CPS tightened its rules and oversight following a 2018 Chicago Tribune series on unchecked sexual abuse in the district,” Chalkbeat wrote. 

“Much of the conduct came to light years later when victims and witnesses reported these matters to the OIG and others,” the inspector general’s office said in a release. “These cases demonstrate that it is never too late to make a report about sexual misconduct in schools.” 

The inspector general’s Sexual Allegations Unit closed 335 sexual misconduct cases, opened 246 new cases and issued 55 reports substantiating misconduct in the 2025 fiscal year, according to Chalkbeat. 

Fraud, financial mismanagement 

As previously reported by The Lion, the district’s OIG had already revealed widespread “systemic issues” regarding a jump in travel expenses, fueled in part by the outpouring of federal COVID-19 pandemic aid. 

“Over and over, CPS employees booked trips using CPS funds without required pre-approvals, exceeded CPS spending limits on hotel rooms and airfare, and enjoyed out-of-town activities of dubious necessity or value to students — all as CPS drew closer and closer to a budget crisis,” the office concluded in November. 

The analysis highlighted “questionable, excessive, and even exorbitant” expeditions such as camel rides, wildlife safaris and hot air balloon rides. 

However, the more extensive report in December uncovered even more cases of financial mismanagement, including: 

• Repeated falsification of applications for the Indian Education Formula Grant, meant for Native American students 
• Multiyear phony billing scheme between a former CPS principal and network chief, Brian Metcalf, and vendor 
• Another principal defrauding pandemic relief programs by claiming to be “a struggling self-employed property manager” despite earning more than $140,000 through her school position, according to Chalkbeat 

The district has fired the program manager responsible for the inflated enrollment grant numbers and promised to pay more than $1.19 million in federal funding by October, according to the report.