Lawyers representing a Jane Doe sexual assault case against Lockport Township High School District 205 reported this week that they have reached a “record-breaking” settlement with the district, while the district says no final deal has been reached.
The case involves an unidentified female student whose family sued the district after a student-on-student sexual assault in 2022.
Timothy Keiser and Allison Dolan of GWC Injury Lawyers, attorneys for the student, said in a news release on Wednesday that they had reached a settlement granting their client $1.1 million, “believed to be the largest known settlement of its kind in the state of Illinois involving a school district and student-on-student sexual assault.”
The school district disputed that claim on Thursday, telling Shaw Local that no such agreement has been reached.
In addition to the financial settlement, the attorneys stated that the settlement contains promises of several policy reforms at the district.
However, District 205 told Shaw Local that no final settlement has been reached, saying only that the district has been in mediation talks with the plaintiff and her attorneys.
“On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, representatives from Lockport Township High School District 205 attended a mediation in a good-faith effort as part of ongoing litigation relating to a December 2022 incident,” District 205 Director of Public Relations Jeanette Castillo said in a statement. “We have not yet finalized a settlement. Any settlement still requires additional steps in order to be finalized.”
Castillo also noted that she was unaware if a tentative agreement had been reached as of April 22.
Dolan and Keiser did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday regarding the district’s denial of a settlement being reached.
The lawsuit stemmed from a Dec. 9, 2022, incident in which the then-14-year-old student, identified only in court records as Jane Doe, alleged she was “violently sexually assaulted by another District 205 student” while attending an away basketball game at Victor J. Andrew High School in Tinley Park.
The alleged assailant was cited in the lawsuit as a member of the Lockport basketball team.
According to the lawsuit, the student accused of the alleged assault had previously been accused of sexually assaulting two other District 205 girls, and that district officials had been aware of the accusations before the 2022 incident.
The lawsuit accused the district and members of the administration of “willful and wanton misconduct for recklessly and carelessly allowing a student with ‘known propensities for sexual assault to be alone with other female students.’ ”
“Despite that knowledge, the assailant remained enrolled and was permitted to participate in the athletic event, without any safeguards in place,” the GWC law firm stated. “District 205 had a clear obligation to protect its students and to act on known risks, yet failed to enforce its own policies or take reasonable steps to prevent this heinous and foreseeable assault.”
The lawsuit said the case demonstrated breakdowns in communication and reporting of misconduct to “key personnel” at the district, and that “procedures were not adequately followed or documented.”
The male student then “transferred schools without undergoing formal expulsion proceedings” from Lockport Township High School, according to the lawsuit.
Tinley Park Police confirmed at the time that a student had been arrested in an investigation of a sexual assault at Andrew High School, but did not confirm further details.
The lawsuit stated the previously alleged incidents in the fall of 2021 and March 2022 involving the accused student were investigated by police, although Lockport Police did not confirm those details.
District 205 said it would not comment on the ongoing litigation at the time the lawsuit was filed and has not confirmed or denied details of the case.