A third civil lawsuit related to former Urbana teacher Jon White, in effect seeking more than $1.5 million, was filed Tuesday in Champaign County Circuit Court.
The suit, filed by Mattoon lawyer Sean Britton, was brought by one of White's former Urbana students and her mother, referred to as Jane Doe-7 and Julie Doe-7.
White, who is named in two counts of the suit, taught in Normal and then Urbana elementary schools before his arrest. He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse – eight in Champaign County and two in McLean County.
The suit filed by Britton closely mirrors two filed by Champaign lawyer Ellyn Bullock on behalf of two other Urbana girls and their mothers.
Discuss.
It seems to me that $100K to $150K would be appropriate monetary damages for an individual child.
Michael Fuerst
(Click here for Urbana postage stamps, T-shirts and bumper stickers.)
How many of you would allow your child to have a stranger rape them for $100,000? That's offensive. And folks, you are kidding yourselves if you think this was a banana. This particular banana left semen on the blindfolds. One of these girls is now enduring the taunts of other children at her new school, where she is being called the most vulgar three-syllable name you might imagine for someone who is the recipient of fellatio.
What's that worth? You want to explain to her why the other kids call her that? Kids are mean, true. This girl will have scars. They are likely to impact her sexuality and self-esteem. Her life will take a different path. Every once in a while she will be offered a banana to eat. She can never respond normally ever again and she will always wonder who knows what she was forced to do. Michael Fuerst, you missed a decimal point.
To Anon @ 3:52:
Please do not think everyone is as insensitive and callous as Mr. Fuerst. My heart and my prayers go out to every single one of those little girls and their families. No one knows what a train wreck this whole White situation has been upon the mental health of those girls, their everyday interactions with males, the marriages of the parents of those children... No one can know except those involved about the private hell they have gone through and will likely continue to go through for some time. I'd suggest Mr. Fuerst take a look at some of the studies on victims of child sexual abuse; how they grow, what common threads seem to appear later on in their adult lives. What makes this whole situation so outrageous is that if the Normal school district had done what they were supposed to do, White would never have been able to teach again. And even given Normal's passing of the trash, if Urbana had done what they were supposed to do (call Normal for a reference), White wouldn't have ever been employed by the Urbana school district and would never have had the chance to molest all those little girls in Urbana.
I'm betting $150,000 isn't a year's salary for any of the school administrators involved. As indicated in the news-gazette article, these suits now open up the discovery phase where we can really find out what went wrong, what the hell these idiot administrators were thinking, and maybe prevent the same thing from happening again. Everyone responsible for this travesty hasn't been held accountable and maybe these civil suits will help change that.
Michael Fuerst...I'm with you! Anonymous...you're not the $30 million dollar mom, are you?! Rape...please! It was a banana...solely a banana and the sad part is that people like you ignore the actual charges "inserting a foreign object into the mouth of a child for the purpose of sexual gratification" so that you can Whah Whah Whah all the way to the bank. What's even worse is that you mention fellatio...ya right...would think that an 8 year old would know and MENTION in a Children's Advocacy Center interview or during multiple prods by police and Reitz that it was something other than a banana. No kid at any time mentioned penis. So...great job in forcing your daughter to testify against this sick individual for an ungodly amount of money when he spared those girls in testifying during the criminal trial. No evidence or no mention that he pleasured himself either while watching the girls. Do the victims deserve money for counseling and suffering? Yes! But do the parents? No! Oh, and by the way, Anonymous/Parent...I thought the parents claimed to have never discussed in detail with their daughters White's game "in order to protect them"...well, ya just perjured yourself...WAY TO GO! P.S. And if you're not the $30 million dollar mom, well I'm sure you'd definitely support her...now how about her claim that "White committed a hate crime because he chose his victims based on their gender". HA!
How many of you would allow your child to have a stranger rape them for $100,000? That's offensive.
That's a logically flawed argument, as I'm sure you're aware. Are you suggesting that this parent would allow their child to be raped for $1.5m (less attorney fees)? That's despicable.
The truth is, no amount of money will rewrite history. Regardless of any monies received, the children will still have endured this tragedy. NO amount of money will change that - none. Further, there's no possible way one can place monetary value on the impact this will have on the victims' lives. It's sad - bad things happen to good people, and society tries its best to help in the aftermath.
Anon 9:26
I've noticed since the first post on this site about White that there has always been one anonymous poster who is absolutely hateful about the subject. I would suspect that you are a relative of White. That being said, you either don't know the facts or you intentionally choose to misrepresent them. I hope all the facts come out so the community really knows what a monster White is. Banana my ass.....
Michael Fuerst...I'm with you! Anonymous...you're not the $30 million dollar mom, are you?! Rape...please! It was a banana...solely a banana and the sad part is that people like you ignore the actual charges "inserting a foreign object into the mouth of a child for the purpose of sexual gratification" so that you can Whah Whah Whah all the way to the bank. What's even worse is that you mention fellatio...ya right...would think that an 8 year old would know and MENTION in a Children's Advocacy Center interview or during multiple prods by police and Reitz that it was something other than a banana. No kid at any time mentioned penis. So...great job in forcing your daughter to testify against this sick individual for an ungodly amount of money when he spared those girls in testifying during the criminal trial. No evidence or no mention that he pleasured himself either while watching the girls. Do the victims deserve money for counseling and suffering? Yes! But do the parents? No! Oh, and by the way, Anonymous/Parent...I thought the parents claimed to have never discussed in detail with their daughters White's game "in order to protect them"...well, ya just perjured yourself...WAY TO GO! P.S. And if you're not the $30 million dollar mom, well I'm sure you'd definitely support her...now how about her claim that "White committed a hate crime because he chose his victims based on their gender". HA!
Good Lord. White apparently blindfolded the girls and told them that it was a banana, so it's not like they would have seen the "something other." But it sounds like physical evidence indicates that he didn't stop with a banana. AFAIK, there's a child advocacy center that conducts the interviews, and they're very careful to avoid leading the children. I talked with them briefly this year about a different issue and they told me a little about their procedures.
BTW, I knew a kid when I was growing up who'd been abused, and the damage seemed to be pretty extensive.
The evidence presented in open court during the "factual basis" portion of the guilty plea was that White's semen was found on the blindfolds that were seized from his classroom on January 27, 2007. This was based upon DNA testing which also found the the DNA of more than one girl on the blindfolds.
Further evidence adduced in open court was that the girls were told not to peek, not to bite the banana, etc. One girl was yelled at by White for biting the banana. Aniother girl described the banana as being soft and "squishy", andother girl described in the verbiage of a seven year old that the "banana" had a bulbous head.
So reasonable persons can draw their own conclusions. Unlike the criminal case, these cases can go forward without the in-court testimony of the children. The School District is not going to call them as witnesses. The witnesses on the hot seat in the civil cases are going to be the school administrators.
And one more thing, the suit already on file is not asking for 30 million dollars and it never was. There are thirty counts. Each one asked for $1,000,000. They are 30 different legal reasons why the plaintiff wins. The numbers should never been added together, but that is what untrained newspaper writers always do.
Dear Ellen Bullock/another lawyer representing a mother and child in a civil suit... Thanks for your 2 cents - but that's about all it's worth. Say what you want, but I too (like any other News Gazette reader) was privy to what was said in open court...just another example of how people are tried in the media. Apparently you like many other posters read the print and twist and turn... Some day the truth will come out and I hope these parents feel like a-holes in not stopping with White's conviction but rather dragging this out for years and years putting their daugthers through further hell only to make a buck. P.S. Bullock, your suits are flawed.
Nope...not a relative...but worked with White at one time. By the way, I know the facts. I was one of those staff members who was bullied into making this case something that it was not...Being told that if I didn't cooperate that I'd be charged with Obstruction of Justice. This case was overcharged to begin with. Reitz was hoping in her election year to make a case out of something that it was not. I too hope ALL the facts come out so the community really knows how the media can sway the public before a trial has even gotten underway. By the way - it was a banana...just a banana, and Helen Keller is part of the 1st grade curriculum in Unit 5. WHOA - where was that fact in all of this?! By the way - I obviously feel for the kids and whole-heartedly agree that White should be punished, however it is what it is and nothing more. Stop obsessing over this case people - there's plenty of other news out there.
We cannot undo the misdeeds of Mr. white
However, a judge, a jury or out-of-court agreement will ultimately put a monetary value on damages for the victims. Some precedents can be found in cases the Catholic Church has settled. The largest settelements per individual are $1 - 2.5M; the smallest around $40K, with $100K to $300K most typical.
If one googles "school abuse settlements", some of the sites one finds are
http://www.totalinjury.com/verdicts_sexual.asp#verdict11
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/358128_teacher08.html
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/news_McCarter_Settlement_980929.html
If one googles "Catholic church abuse settlements", some of the sites one finds are
http://blog.totalinjury.com/archives/personal-injury-cases-in-the-news-latest-catholic-church-priest-sexual-abuse-settlements.html
http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/257-million-settlement.aspx?googleid=27886
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases#cite_note-69
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/us/16abuse.html
Discerning the reasons for the differences in these various settlements, if the information could be found, would require more time.
I now feel that $150K to $350K might be appropriate in the Urbana cases.
Michael Fuerst
(Click here for Urbana postage stamps, T-shirts and bumper stickers.)
Yes, we wouldnt want to get too upset with our children's safety in the Urbana School district. Amberg and the others dropped the ball , big time on this one. If these administrators had been as concerned about this situation as they were with runnning around doing a PR campaign, then it would have ended alot earlier. This case is a perfect example of taxpayer funded officials pulling huge salaries and having absolutely no penalty clause for callous and illegal behavior.