Former CPS dean stands trial accused of sexually abusing a student
Slightly confused, the woman said she gave him the information for her social media account. That led him to start messaging her, she said, before entering into a relationship with her.
Crowder began standing trial this week on charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and other felonies after Cook County prosecutors accused him of engaging in a sexual relationship with a student from around 2013 to 2016 while serving as an associate dean at the Social Justice High School, a part of Little Village Lawndale High School.
The case goes before a jury as the handling of sexual abuse allegations by Chicago Public Schools has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years and as Crowder is also named in a 2024 lawsuit that accuses CPS of failing to protect its students.
Attorneys opened their cases on Tuesday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building before the former student, now 26, testified for hours, telling jurors that Crowder engaged her in a relationship and then coerced her into having two abortions.
The Tribune is not naming the woman because she is alleged to be the victim in a sexual assault case.
Growing occasionally emotional, the woman began her testimony by recalling her sophomore year of high school. When Crowder had asked about about her Snapchat, a social media platform in which messages and photos usually disappear after a time, she said she asked him why her wanted her account information.
'He said, it's not like I'm going to add you,' she said. 'That makes sense in my head because he was my school dean.'
But he quickly began messaging her photos and telling her he wanted her, she said, adding that they eventually began talking every day and engaging in a sexual relationship. He offered her alcohol, she said, and he would pass her notes during school suspensions, which he was in charge of monitoring.
The woman told jurors that Crowder got her pregnant twice and badgered her to get abortions, even though she preferred to continue the pregnancies.
'He said there's no way I could have the baby,' she said. 'He would text me day and night all day to get me to not have this baby because he was going to go to jail and lose his son.'
Because she was underage, she could not consent to the abortions herself. Crowder, using false names, signed the consent forms, she said.
'I was just upset and emotional,' she said. 'He was just very relieved.'
In 2018, the Chicago Tribune's 'Betrayed' investigation revealed failures in how the nation's fourth largest school district handled allegations of abuse, including neglecting to report accusations to police or child welfare investigators and failing to conduct effective background checks.
The civil complaint filed by the woman against Crowder and the school district heavily references the Tribune's investigation and alleges that CPS at the time 'did not track child abuse by its employees or agents in a publicly available format.'
The suit also accuses employees at Little Village Lawndale High School of failing to act when an inappropriate relationship between Crowder and the student was noticed by others who 'would joke about how much time was spent alone' between Crowder and the student.
At one point, the suit alleges, the student told a teacher about her relationship with Crowder, but the teacher never took steps to report or stop the abuse.
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