Chicago Public Schools is set to pay $300,000 to the mother of a Black student who district records and a lawsuit say endured racist bullying for more than two years at a predominantly white Northwest Side elementary school. The Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved the payment to Sher’Ron Hinton’s family at its monthly meeting Thursday.
The settlement follows a lawsuit Hinton filed against the district in July 2025, according to WBEZ. The suit accused staff at Wildwood IB World Magnet School of “willful and wanton conduct” and negligence for allowing her daughter to be subjected to what the filing called “extreme acts of race-based bullying, sexual harassment and sexual abuse.” The girl, identified in reporting only as Jada to protect her identity, attended the school for years before her mother pulled her out.
School reports and educator emails documented a pattern that went well beyond name-calling. Jada was subjected to repeated racial slurs, body-shaming, encouragement to kill herself and, in one case, unwanted touching, the records show. She told school employees four times during fifth grade that she was having suicidal thoughts.
A Mother Learns the Extent of the Abuse
Hinton says she first learned of the bullying in October 2024, after Jada came home and reported hearing a racial slur. A Wildwood incident report dated November 19, 2024, documented the episode, and weeks later, on December 4, 2024, the school’s social-emotional learning director sent an urgent request and support protocols to all seventh-grade teachers, writing that Jada felt unsafe and targeted at school.
CPS’s Office of Student Protections ultimately substantiated that Jada was a victim of racial bullying, and the students involved received in-school suspensions. Hinton has said that reading through the incident reports was devastating, and according to the same WBEZ account, Jada confirmed that everything documented in those reports through seventh grade had actually happened.
Months of Treatment, Then a Transfer
Jada took time off from school in spring 2025 for intensive mental health treatment, per Hinton. After classes let out that June, Hinton transferred Jada and her four siblings out of Wildwood entirely. Hinton declined to comment Thursday on the settlement, the station reported.
CPS officials have not commented on the settlement itself. But in 2025, the district defended Wildwood’s handling of the situation, with a CPS spokeswoman saying school leadership had consistently monitored and supported the students involved over the previous two years. The spokeswoman also noted that school documents do not capture every effort the school made or every communication with the family. Some parents of students accused by Jada have said their children told them the accusations were false, according to the reporting.
A Pattern the District Has Struggled to Address
Wildwood’s case has drawn scrutiny partly because of where it sits in the district’s broader demographics. The school is one of only 26 majority-white schools among 647 total in Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in its 2025 investigation into the bullying and the administration’s handling of it. The Sun-Times also found that CPS had acknowledged, four years before that investigation, that schools were struggling to combat racist bullying and other discrimination, and that its Office of Student Protections had since expanded staff but still lacked the capacity to keep up with skyrocketing reports.
Statewide data points to a related pattern in school discipline. During the 2024-2025 school year, students of color in Illinois were on average 2.2 times more likely than white students to be expelled or suspended, according to The 74. Students of color accounted for 71.8% of expulsions and suspensions that year while making up only 55.7% of the state’s student population, the outlet found.
Other Illinois Districts Have Faced Similar Claims
Wildwood is not the only Illinois school accused of mishandling racial bullying. Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 agreed to pay $115,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging civil rights discrimination and racial bullying, according to the Northwest Herald. That suit, filed in 2024 by Lee Sain on behalf of his son against the district, school principals, the city of Crystal Lake and Crystal Lake police officers, alleged the defendants failed to address racial bullying, intimidation, discrimination, harassment and abuse. District 47’s school board approved its settlement while denying all wrongdoing, liability or that the student suffered damages.
Separately, Illinois lawmakers have moved to tighten bullying-notification rules statewide. Legislation reported by Capitol News Illinois would require schools to make diligent efforts to notify parents or guardians within 24 hours of becoming aware of a bullying incident, and would require schools to share bullying-allegation data from the 2024-2025 school year through the 2030-2031 school year.
