SPRINGFIELD — Ashley Peden’s 10-year-old daughter was in fifth grade in 2023 when an eighth grader began sexually assaulting her on the school bus over the course of a week, escalating when the boy pulled her away near a bus stop, pushed her to the ground, violently sexually assaulted her and threatened to hurt her family if she said anything. When confronted by police, the boy admitted to the sexual assaults.
Despite knowledge of the admitted incidents and her daughter’s emergency order of protection, Peden said in interviews and in a lawsuit that the response from the Taylorville Community Unit School District, near Springfield, was woefully inadequate. The boy was not initially suspended or expelled, and the school’s safety plan — shared only with her daughter’s fifth-grade teacher, the bus company and office staff — required only that the boy’s class and bus schedules be shifted around to prevent future interactions, according to Peden and her lawsuit.
It was only after three weeks and several meetings that the district agreed to place the boy in an alternative school. During the interim, the boy continued to ride another bus to school — one with children younger than Peden’s daughter, according to the lawsuit. A year later, the school contacted Peden to ask whether her daughter would take a different bus so the boy could return to his original school. After more meetings and another court order, he was sent to an alternative school again.
The criminal court records are sealed because the perpetrator was a minor. But Peden said that while the boy was convicted of four felonies, received five years of probation, was added to the juvenile sex offenders registry and will no longer be around her daughter, she shouldn’t have had to go through so many hurdles to ensure her school took action.
That inaction is why Peden and families of other victims from across Illinois are pushing lawmakers to pass a bill mandating that students who commit sexual assault or attempt to do so at school, school-sponsored events or events with a “reasonable relationship to school” receive a minimum one-year expulsion.
“We can’t have some schools taking this thing seriously and then other schools sweeping them under the rug,” Peden said. “School is supposed to be a safe place. It shouldn’t be causing trauma.”
Peden’s lawsuit against the Taylorville school district is ongoing. The school district did not respond to requests for comment.
Springfield Republican Sen. Steve McClure, the bill’s main Senate sponsor, said when enough schools are unwilling to protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable, the legislature needs to step in.
“Most schools do the right thing, but there are enough cases where the school is forcing the rape victim to still be in school with the rapist,” McClure said. “And it’s very detrimental to the victim and it also puts other students at risk. This is a very important bill that’s going to address what is a real problem.”
The legislation was introduced last year but did not receive a vote. Sponsors returned this session with a revised version that sharpens the bill’s definitions and broadens its protections.
The updated bill more clearly defines sexual assault to include nonconsensual sexual activity that occurs when a victim is unconscious, asleep, drugged or intoxicated. The revised legislation also clarifies that individuals with severe disabilities who are unable to understand the nature of a sexual act or who are incapable of resisting cannot consent.
The proposal would allow school superintendents to modify the length of expulsions, with school boards able to revise the superintendent’s decision. Students expelled for sexual assault would also be eligible for alternative school placement.
The bill has drawn wide bipartisan support. Democratic Senate President Don Harmon said protecting students from sexual violence is a priority.
“The sponsor has been working across the aisle to refine this proposal, and what you’ve seen is bipartisan interest in an effective law that protects students. The conversation is ongoing,” Harmon’s spokesperson John Patterson said in an emailed statement.
Currently, there is no statewide student-to-student sexual assault investigative process, but every school district must adopt student discipline policies and adhere to Title IX requirements, which have been narrowed during President Donald Trump’s administration to provide more protections to the accused. Generally, immediately after a student reports a sexual assault to a staff member, that employee must inform the school’s designated Title IX coordinator, who is responsible for ensuring the student receives any needed medical care, is no longer in danger, notify police if warranted and contact the student’s guardians.
The coordinator typically handles the school’s internal sexual assault investigation using a “preponderance of evidence” standard to determine responsibility, with punishments determined on a case-by-case basis.
In assisting victims after a sexual assault, schools must offer supportive measures in both health and academics, which can include staff escorts between classes, assignment deadline extensions and access to mental health services.
This is not the first time that the parents of victims have accused Illinois schools of mishandling student sexual abuse and assault cases. Eight years ago, the Chicago Tribune’s “Betrayed” series identified nearly 40 instances of sexual attacks at Chicago Public Schools campuses between 2004 and 2018 — many cases in which schools ignored red flags and principals cast doubt on the victims’ stories.
When speaking with victims, the co-founder of Stop Sexual Assaults in Schools, Esther Warkov, said victim advocates are crucial to avoiding unnecessarily causing students to relive trauma.
“There should be a victim advocate at, you know, any kind of interview that’s always there to ensure that the survivor isn’t retraumatized, and you have to ask the survivor exactly what kind of accommodations they want,” Warkov said.
Carrie Ward, CEO of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Violence, said schools should also coordinate with their local rape crisis center to improve staff training and offer counseling for victims.
While lawmakers and advocates agree most schools handle sexual assaults appropriately, they said cases like Peden’s are not isolated.
Ward said too many schools have unclear policies about what to do in the event of a sexual assault, which can lead to victims being retraumatized or wrongly expected to make accommodations for the person who harmed them.
“What we know is that we have to help survivors assert their rights,” Ward said. “We think that there is a lack of fairness in asking the survivor to change their classes, to change the bus they ride, to change their friend group, to make all the changes in their lives, to accommodate the person who has harmed them.”
In 2022, Jessica Johnson’s then-16-year-old daughter reported being sexually assaulted by a classmate when students were paired to practice lines during theater class. What followed, Johnson said, was inaction and cold shoulders from officials at their south suburban Homewood-Flossmoor High School District.
After the assault, her daughter was not given medical care before being taken to the hospital, and the school waited more than three hours before notifying Johnson, she said. When her daughter was uncomfortable attending graduation, Johnson said the school refused to provide security, causing her daughter to skip the ceremony altogether.
Adding to her anguish, Johnson said, the school never suspended, expelled or transferred the classmate to an alternative school for the attack on her daughter.
Months before the assault, students staged a walkout to protest how the school was responding to allegations of sexual harassment and a sexual assault. When her daughter came forward, students staged several more walkouts.
“When you send your kids to school, you shouldn’t have to think about, ‘Are they safe?’ You shouldn’t be at work wondering, ‘Are they OK?’ That should be the No. 1 place where you’re not worried about those things,” Johnson said.
The district settled a lawsuit with Johnson for $3.5 million in 2025 for failing to protect her daughter and for its response after the assault. In a letter signed by the school board and sent to district families, officials said the settlement was not an admission of guilt and that “only the two students involved know what actually occurred.”
A Homewood-Flossmoor High School District spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
