Saw a comment alleging this. Googled it. Came up with this Tribune article from 1992:
- A security guard at a Near West Side school disciplined four 7th-grade girls caught in the hallways after lunch by forcing them to eat cakes of caustic soap, a federal lawsuit charges.
The students at the Talcott School, 1840 W. Ohio St., were found wandering the halls on Oct. 10 by the guard, an off-duty Chicago police officer, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The officer brought them to a vice principal`s office where she offered to punish the students herself, said Denise Devitt, the attorney who filed the suit on behalf of three of the girls and their mothers seeking unspecified damages.
When the vice principal approved this, Devitt said, the officer, whom Devitt identified as Maria Pena of the Wood District, led the girls to a bathroom. Once there, a second security guard, identified as Marcy Mercado, allegedly barred the door, according to the suit.
Then, Pena, who was wearing her police uniform, allegedly forced the 11-and 12-year-olds to begin eating bars of heavy-duty janitorial soap, causing one of them to vomit, Devitt said.
``I don`t know what would warrant that type of physical abuse,`` said Devitt, who added that none of the girls received medical attention at school after the incident, but that two of them, brought by parents, were at the emergency room of a local hospital until late that night.
Anyone want to give the readers some background on this? Seems like battery charges ought to have been filed at the very least. If it's the same Pena, certainly shouldn't be running a District by any stretch of the imagination.
UPDATE: The lawsuit was settled for $25,000 according to a link in the comment section. That tells us quite a bit about the merits of the lawsuit.
UPDATE: The lawsuit was settled for $25,000 according to a link in the comment section. That tells us quite a bit about the merits of the lawsuit.