Orland School District Should Have Protected Students from Coach's Alleged Abuse: Lawsuit

ORLAND PARK, IL — Two former junior high students who allege they were sexually abused by their basketball coach have filed a lawsuit against the school district that employed the woman.

Cara Labus, 32, was arrested in January 2015 and accused of abusing two girls between the ages of 14 and 16 while she was a teacher and basketball coach at Jerling Junior High School. She was charged with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

The lawsuit — which seeks more than $100,000 in damages — claims that Labus had sex with the girls during "sleepovers" at a home she shared with her husband. The lawsuit alleges the girls "were victims of a known and preventable hazard" from which Orland School District 135 should have protected them during her time of employment there. The district should have prevented unsupervised contact with students, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. In an email statement to the Sun-Times, the district declined further comment, citing pending litigation.

Labus' husband is also named in the suit, noting that he was home at the time of the alleged abuse and had the ability to protect the girls from his wife's "dangerous, criminal and exploitative sexual propensities," according to the report.

Labus, of the 1500 block of Kempton Street in Joliet, is out of jail and on electronic home monitoring, with a nightly curfew of 10:30 p.m. She is next due in court Nov. 10.

Photo: Cara Labus