$2 Million Settlement Against Chicago Public Schools in Federico Garcia Lorca Gym Teacher Abuse Case

From roughly 2018 through 2022, Andrew Castro worked as a gym teacher at Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary School in Chicago. Over that span, he targeted three young boys, using gifts and preferential treatment to build trust before subjecting each of them to sexual abuse. Castro was removed from the school in 2021, but CPS did not name him in communications to families, a failure that kept parents in the dark about the specific threat their children had faced.

The three families filed a federal civil lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools, arguing that the district knew or should have known about Castro's conduct and failed to act in time to protect students. The case centered on the district's obligation to maintain a safe school environment and its handling of abuse complaints once concerns arose.

Larry Disparti of Disparti Law Group, along with co-counsel Patrycja Karlin, Cass Casper, and Amanda Martin, pressed the case through federal court. Their theory: CPS had the information and the institutional capacity to stop the abuse earlier but did neither. As Disparti stated publicly after the announcement, 'Nothing was done, until it was too late, and the rape and the molestations had already occurred.'

In October 2024, the parties reached a $2 million settlement. Andrew Castro remained subject to separate criminal proceedings in Cook County at the time the civil case resolved. The civil settlement, while providing some measure of financial accountability, was characterized by lead co-counsel Patrycja Karlin not as a victory but as 'merely the beginning of a much larger fight' to reform how CPS responds to abuse reports.

The case drew significant local media attention and renewed public scrutiny of Chicago Public Schools' internal protocols for investigating and disclosing staff misconduct to the families who entrust the district with their children's safety.