Bloom Trail HS shaken by sexual abuse allegations: Civil lawsuit filed against coach, teacher
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. - A high school softball coach and teacher is facing allegations of sexual abuse. He's accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a former student.
The details of the alleged abuse are outlined in a civil lawsuit that was filed in Cook County last week against Bloom Trail High School, the school district and Ron Giglio, who is now on administrative leave.
FOX 32 has also learned that the Department of Children and Family Services has a pending investigation involving Giglio that was filed just last week.
Now that one alleged, unnamed victim has come forward in a lawsuit, and her attorney said they are getting calls from other women who said they have similar experiences with this teacher and softball coach.
Just last year, Lia Husack was a freshman in Giglio’s social studies class.
"He would take me to his closet to give me popsicles to reward me for being a good student. He would touch my legs. He would rub my back as he walked past me and as I was sitting there doing my work. He would cause arguments if I wouldn't go in his closet with him and send me down to the dean’s office," said Husack. "I went straight to the principal's office. She did nothing about it."
Both she and her mom, Jenafer Sailsbery, tried to tell on him.
"It's a year later and nothing has been done, and they're trying to make it okay that the lawsuit is from two decades ago when it's still happening. How is that okay?" said Sailsbery.
The news of the lawsuit sparked a small demonstration outside the high school on Thursday. All the protesters were former students and called the alleged abuse "common knowledge."
The civil lawsuit alleges Giglio began to groom the plaintiff when she was a sophomore and by the time she was a junior, they were having a sexual relationship, meeting on and off school grounds.
Giglio is not only a teacher, but also a softball coach. One former student and player said she quit the team after she tried to report something to administrators about Giglio, but nothing happened.
"It's most important to me that the students that they have going and the parents they have going, they at least know what's happening and how intense it actually is. It's not, it's not this thing that happened 20 years ago. The statement that the school released was, ‘we got this lawsuit about something that happened over two decades ago.’ Well, I, I graduated in 2017 and I had an incident. There's plenty of people I know that have had incidents. It is, like I said, an open secret," said Jennifer Wein.
Chris Paicely is with Marketing and Communications within Bloom Township High School District 206, and he passed this statement along to FOX 32.
"The district recently received a notice about litigation involving the alleged inappropriate actions of a Bloom Trail High School staff member over two decades ago. We cannot discuss this complaint because it is a personnel and legal matter. What we can share is that the safety of our students is our number one priority, and the listed staff member has been placed on administrative leave while the District conducts a thorough investigation. If any student has concerns about their safety, we strongly encourage them to report those concerns to our Bloom Trail administrative staff immediately."
Giglio has not been officially charged – he's only been named in the lawsuit. We reached out to Giglio for comment and have not heard back.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit is being represented by Passen & Powell in Chicago, and they say they are now receiving calls from other potential victims. If you think you have a similar story, you’re asked to contact them:
Passen & Powell
312-527-4500
Info@passenpowell.com
