Woman sues Westchester schools after ex-teacher charged with sexual abuse

CHICAGO (CBS) — A woman who said she was groomed and sexually abused by her teacher and volleyball coach in west suburban Westchester more than two decades ago has now filed a lawsuit against the school district where it happened.
Former Westchester Middle School teacher Dawn Chester resigned after the girl’s mother told the
school about the abuse, but she went on to teach at other Chicago area middle schools for more than two decades.
The now-37-year-old plaintiff, who does not want to be named publicly, told her legal team why she wanted to come forward after so many years. She said she saw the woman she accuses of abusing her working in another district, and went to the police.
“It’s always the right time to come forward and speak up,” said attorney David Rashid.
The victim said between 1998 and 2000, starting when she was 11 years old in the sixth grade at Westchester Middle School, Chester – who at the time went by Dawn Lach – was her volleyball coach and teacher. 
In 1998, the victim participated in a school-sponsored overnight camp in Wisconsin, where Chester served as a chaperone. During the trip, Chester touched the victim inappropriately, the lawsuit alleged. Afterward, she would write unnecessary detentions for the victim, requiring them to spend time alone together before school, where Chester would make sexual contact with the victim, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit claims Chester sexually abused the victim on several occasions on school grounds, including in Chester’s classroom, the science lab, the locker room, and the school gym.
Chester also is accused of sending the victim letters complimenting her appearance and telling her to come see Chester alone in her classroom. 
In undated letters, the lawsuit alleged, Chester wrote, among other things:
Chester kept writing the girl letters through seventh grade, regularly referring to the girl as “Brat,” attorneys said.
In one letter on April 12, 2000, Chester allegedly wrote: “I’m having a hard time going full days without talking to you. I just feel like something is missing (any idea what it could be?)”
In another letter the same day, Chester allegedly wrote: “Dear Brat, I was not mad at you yesterday. People tease you because they believe you talk to me the most and I like you best. I think you are weird, but I accept that fact. I’ve noticed you like coming in mornings that you can spend with me.”
In another dated April 20, 2000,  Chester allegedly wrote: “You yelled at me. You need to work on controlling your anger. It seems like on days we don’t talk, things go wrong.” The letter also stated: “My phone was ringing. I know it was you. I have these ‘funny’ feelings that tell me you are thinking of me. You called and hung up on me. This is going to make me nuts. Are you saying I pushed you too far?”
The lawsuit quoted several other letters attorneys said Chester wrote to the girl around that same time.
The letters repeatedly emphasized that Chester needed to keep the girl’s encounters with her a secret from the girl’s family and peers, the lawsuit said.
Also in seventh grade, the volleyball team—on which the plaintiff played—went on a school-sanction sleepover with Chester along as the coach, the lawsuit said. During the sleepover, Chester had the girl lie with her on an air mattress while the other children slept in sleeping bags, the lawsuit said.
When the victim’s mother discovered the letters, she reported them to the school district.
The lawsuit claims the school’s legal team recommended that Chester should resign, which she did in August 2000. However, the woman’s attorneys said the school district never alerted law enforcement or the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services as required by law. 
That allowed Chester, who has also gone by the names Dawn Lach and Dawn Anderson, to continue to work elsewhere as a teacher. The victim’s attorneys said the Westchester School District “violated their position of trust.”
The Westchester school superintendent also recalled being notified at the time about the air mattress incident by three different students and one parent—only for nothing to happen, attorneys said.
“What was owed was the protection to be a child, to go to school, to be protected, and that was owed by the Westchester Middle School, by the Westchester School District, and those in a position of authority, and they failed,”. Rashid said.
The lawsuit said Chester was “subsequently hired by Berkeley School District 87 in Berkeley, Illinois, where she remained a teacher and coach for over 20 years.”
In June of this year, the plaintiff figured out through social media that Chester was teaching at Northlake Middle School—part of the Berkeley district, attorneys said. The plaintiff reported Chester’s alleged offenses to the school and authorities, and Chester was placed on administrative leave.
In August, Chester, now 54, was arrested—and she has been indicted by a grand jury on a felony charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 18 by someone in a position of trust. She has pleaded not guilty.
CBS News Chicago reached Chester on Tuesday and was told she had no comment.
“I think any time you can hold somebody accountable for their actions is important—one year or 20 years later,” Rashid said.
The woman hopes her lawsuit will encourage other possible victims to come forward.
“We know the pattern of behavior, and we know what our client endured,” Rashid said, “and if there are other victims out there, we want them to know they’re not alone. They have a voice, and we are happy to give that voice to them.”
Westchester School District 92 ½ Supt. Philip Salemi said the district does not comment on pending litigation, but also shared that no current administrators were employed by the district at the time the alleged abuse happened. Salemi shared the statement he released after Chester was arrested in August:
Berkeley School District 87 Supt. Dan Sullivan also released a statement: