Woman learns her accused sex abuser is still teaching school 25 years later, IL suit says

An Illinois school district is being sued after a former student discovered a teacher accused of sexually abusing her 25 years ago was still teaching.

The victim was 11 years old when the abuse began , and she endured it for two years, from 1998 to 2000, while attending Westchester Middle School, law firm Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard said in a Nov. 11 news release, following the recent lawsuit filing in Cook County.

When allegations surfaced against the teacher, Dawn Chester, her career didn't end, and the extent of her punishment was a forced resignation, the lawsuit said.

But a chance discovery by her victim earlier this year changed that, leading to Chester's arrest in August on a charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, the Westchester Police Department said in a news release.

However, with so many years gone by, the lawsuit said Chester would have had ample opportunity to target more students — and a lack of action by Westchester School District 92 1/2 allowed Chester to continue working with children.

"(Chester), who resigned from her teaching and coaching positions in Westchester in August 2000, went on to teach for more than two decades at another Chicago-area middle school, leading attorneys to believe she could have other victims," the firm said.

After leaving Westchester, Chester got a job with Berkeley School District 87, where she worked as a teacher and coach for over 20 years, the lawsuit said.

McClatchy News has reached out to Westchester Public Schools for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

However, in a statement released following Chester's arrest over the summer, the district said that while there now exists a requirement for school districts to inform the state and regional school superintendents of teachers believed to be potentially abusive or dangerous, there was no such requirement in 2000.

Red flags Chester showed a great deal of "personal interest" in the victim, police say, "writing her dozens of personal letters and notes, routinely orchestrating instances of being alone with the student, and touching her in a sexual manner."

"When I hear somebody call your name, I can feel my heart smile," one of the letters read, according to the lawsuit.

"I'm having a hard time going full days without talking to you," read another, according to the lawsuit.

In each letter, Chester is also accused of reminding the girl that what they were doing was a secret she could tell no one.

In 2000, the volleyball team had a sleepover. Chester, being the coach, chaperoned the event, the lawsuit said. While the other players slept all around them in sleeping bags, Chester had the victim join her on an air mattress, according to the firm.

Some saw this as a red flag, according to the firm, but the district apparently felt different.

"It was later revealed that the Westchester Superintendent recalled being notified of the incident by at least three students and one parent shortly after the sleepover but did nothing to address the issue," the woman's attorneys said.

On several occasions, Chester gave the student detention, so that she could get her alone and sexually abuse her, according to the release. For the same reason, she would also tell her to take bathroom breaks or skip class, or to come see her alone after class, the woman's lawyers said.

The abuse only came to an end after the girl's mother found the letters sent to her by Chester, the lawsuit said. The mother confronted school administrators about Chester and the district's legal team, which said the letters "appear to be 'grooming' in nature," suggested she resign, and she did.

But "at no time" did the district report Chester to law enforcement, though they should have as "a mandatory reporter," the lawsuit said.

Disturbing discovery More than two decades later, in June 2024, Chester's student, now a 37-year-old woman, made a distressing find while browsing social media — Chester was teaching in another school district in Berkeley, a neighboring community just four miles north from Westchester. Her name was different now — she had gone by Dawn Lach at the time of the abuse — and she was working at Northlake Middle School, according to the firm.

The woman "immediately" contacted the school and local authorities, which led to Chester's arrest, attorneys said.

It comes far later than it should, and their client's school district is at fault, the firm says.

"We intend to prove at trial that the Westchester School District and its employees violated their position of trust, and their inaction allowed the Defendant to continue her inappropriate relationship with our client, who was just a child at the time of the abuse," the woman's attorney, David Rashid, said. "As a result of the sexual and emotional abuse, our client has suffered immensely in the two decades since this happened. It is doubtful she will ever recover from the exploitation she endured during middle school, but we can stop this from happening to another innocent child by holding those accountable responsible for their negligence."

The woman's attorneys are seeking $350,000 in damages, the lawsuit shows.

Westchester is a suburb of Chicago, roughly 15-mile drive west from the city's downtown.