Ashley Peden wants Illinois law changed to protect students because she says her daughter was sexually assaulted by someone attending the same school and she shouldn’t have to continue to see her assailant.
The assaults, which allegedly happened in late January and early February 2024 on a school bus and at a bus stop serving Taylorville Junior High School, is the impetus for legislation sponsored by state Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield.
“This came about because I had a constituent who is 10 years old who was being attacked by a 14-year-old male student on the school bus over the course of a week,” he said. “And by attacked, I mean in a sexual way. Essentially, the school didn’t do anything. And at the end of the week, she was sexually assaulted outside of her bus stop by that 14-year-old male student. The school didn’t do anything.”
McClure is sponsoring legislation that would require schools to expel students who commit sexual assaults. State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville, is sponsoring identical legislation in the House.
“Sexual assault is right up there as the most serious thing a person can do to another person, other than murder,” McClure said.
Peden said to the best of her knowledge the teenage boy never faced any punishment from school administrators. And although educators are mandated to report abuse to authorities, they failed to do so, she said.
Taylorville school superintendent Brandi Bruley did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Illinois Times.
Ultimately, Peden went to court and received an order of protection for her daughter.
“What the issue was is the negligence that took place afterwards to prevent it from happening again. I had an order of protection initially stating that the boy who assaulted her shouldn’t be at school or within 500 feet. … The safety plan that (the school) did put in place was merely to keep the two students apart.
“It wasn’t to keep anybody safe. None of the staff knew about the safety plan. The boy’s teachers didn’t even know he was on a safety plan. They can say they made a safety plan, but there’s no way it was implemented if nobody knew about it. And it wasn’t until I had multiple meetings with the administration, the regional superintendent and then the (interim) superintendent that I was able to get the boy sent to an alternative school through court orders.”
McClure said unfortunately, this case was not an isolated incident in Illinois.
“Since I filed this bill, we have had many people reach out to me where they have had a similar situation in their school district in which the student faced no punishment at all for committing the worst act other than murder,” he said.
Although Republicans are in the legislative minority, McClure said he is optimistic about the passage of his bill.
“I just can’t imagine any of my fellow legislators want this to continue happening in schools across the state,” he said. “If you look at the list of people who are signing up to be cosponsors, we’re getting a bipartisan group and they’re going to be more next week. So, I feel good about it.”
Peden, who teaches in Springfield but lives in rural Stonington, said some school districts deal with these issues better than others.
The alleged perpetrator’s case is still working its way through the court system, she said. Because the accused is underage, the court files are sealed, and hearings happen behind closed doors.
Just why some school districts are reticent to expel students accused of sexual assaults is a bit of an open question.
“The first thing is these schools are worried about liability if this happened on their watch,” McClure said. “No. 2 because the current statute says that in order to expel a student, you have to exhaust every possible (alternative) before you can. The law is pretty harsh when it comes to whether you can actually take action against the student or not.
“And then the third thing is they just don’t want this kind of stuff to get out. It’s a reputational thing. I would say the fourth thing would be some of these schools are acting like it’s just kids being kids even if it’s nonconsensual and even if one is significantly older than the other.”
Aaron Graves, president of the Springfield Education Association, said his union has not taken a position on the legislation. But he personally supports it.
“The fact is, it affects other students that this person could potentially attack,” he said. “It will stay with them for the rest of their lives. … If we know a student is doing this, or is capable of doing this, we’ve got to get them to a different school where they can maybe get some treatment. But more importantly, you’ve got to keep the other kids safe.”
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