A lawsuit claims that an Arlington Heights school nurse did real and future harm to nine children and disrupted their health, education and sense of trust and security – by taking their prescription medication and giving them over-the-counter replacements. The Romanucci & Blandin law firm is representing the nine families. Speaking at a Thursday press conference about the case are law firm personnel (from left) paralegal Melinda Chacon, senior paralegal Lucy Gonzalez, partner Michael Holden, senior paralegal Dana Kondos and partner Michael Cerasa.

CHICAGO – Arlington Heights School District 25 “utterly failed to support medically vulnerable children by allowing a school nurse to act with impunity when she failed to provide the children’s proper prescription/controlled substance medication during school hours,” according to a lawsuit.

Instead of being a trusted support person as students learn and grow, former Westgate Elementary School nurse Tory Eitz instead did real and future harm to nine children and disrupted their health, education and sense of trust and security – while her employer, Arlington Heights School District 25, Westgate Principal Ann Buch and then-Assistant Superintendent Brian Kaye had the notice and ability to stop her… and actively chose not to, the lawsuit contends.

The reckless behaviors and decisions not to intervene have destroyed the children’s trust in authority figures and healthcare providers, disrupted physical/social-emotional learning in school, resulted in missed educational opportunities, and diminished students’ self-worth, lawyers for all nine affected students and the students’ parents said. They claim disruption of medical treatment often included increased dosage of medicine because perception was that the current dose wasn’t working.

Chicago-based civil rights and personal injury law firm Romanucci & Blandin has filed the lawsuit aimed at holding those responsible accountable for harm to children, including the nurse (who has since been fired and criminally charged), District 25, Westgate Elementary Principal Buch and then-Assistant Superintendent Kaye, who’s now District 25 superintendent.

Missing medicine

From 2021-24, Eitz was the school nurse at Westgate Elementary School in Arlington Heights, where, among other duties, she was responsible for dispensing student medication during the school day.

Eitz abused and manipulated relationships with parents who entrusted their children to her care, telling parents medicine was missing, fell down the sink, or for some reason was miscounted … and that she needed more, and that at least twice in 2023 offered to meet parents in the parking lot of the school to provide the medicine to her, the lawsuit contends. Many of the prescriptions were controlled substances.

Also, in some circumstances signatures on medicine logs did not match those of parents, lawyers for the plaintiffs state. Eventually a parent expressed concern. In April 2024, Kaye, in a text message to one of the plaintiffs, admitted to having prior notice of the concern, lawyers contend.

They noted that no action had been taken to investigate, report or terminate the behavior to protect children. The evidence points to the conclusion that Eitz stole medication from students and replaced the missing medication with non-prescription medication such as aspirin – in direct violation of doctors’ orders for the children, lawyers allege. In one case, they said, a young student tested positive for fentanyl as details of the scam became clear.

In a letter to the District 25 community, School Board President Greg Scapillato and Kaye said that when district officials were made aware of medication management concerns connected to the former school nurse in April 2024, they immediately contacted both the Arlington Heights Police Department and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

‘Deeply disappointed’

“The District cooperated fully in both investigations of this matter. The former school nurse was terminated by the District on May 8, 2024, immediately following our internal investigation of this matter.” Scapillato and Kaye said.

“Like you, we were deeply disappointed and shocked by this significant breach of trust by a licensed healthcare professional,” they added. “We sincerely regret the pain and disruption this incident has caused to the families impacted and our school community.

“The safety and well-being of our students, staff and school community is always our highest priority.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyers said that during the course of their civil investigation, they learned that District 25 administrators and school officials had notice of improper administration of medication, missing medication, and the failure to follow protocols when that medication went missing.

“This goes back as far as a November 2021 written communication from a parent,” the attorneys said.

“For years … there were red flags and warning signs presented to AHSD administrators,” the lawsuit alleges.

A Westgate parent’s 2022 email, which was included in the lawsuit, notes the parent’s “significant concern” over “multiple instances in which there have been clear miscommunications, missing medications and missing chart information.”

The plaintiff’s attorneys said that Westgate Principal Buch and Kaye were aware of concerns that nurse Eitz was breaching her trust with the students and their families as a medical professional. Eitz should have been reported and terminated at the time of the first parental report, the lawyers said.

“Our client families share heart-wrenching stories about the harm done to their children by the actions of Tory Eitz and District 25. They call Eitz a predator,” said Romanucci & Blandin Managing and Senior Partner Gina DeBoni. ”These parents explain in detail the ‘harsh realities’ the kids are learning about drugs and addiction, and that some people hurt others for their own benefit, and sometimes, those people are nurses or authority figures.

“Also painful is that the children are learning that the people at school who had the highest level of responsibility for their safety had all the notice they needed to take action and instead chose not to, including the District 25 Board of Education who did not hold school leaders accountable.”

Impact

Romanucci & Blandin partner Michael Holden said the harm done to each of the nine children is very real, and it is impossible to assess how the experience will impact them as they grow into teenagers and young adults.

“Keep in mind that before any manipulation of their medication, each of these children was working through a health condition that challenged them during school and required medical attention including prescription medication,” Holden said. “If you then layer on physical ramifications of not receiving their proper medication and the social/emotional distress by the disruption of trust, these elementary school children face an uphill battle navigating their own healthcare as well as relationships.”

The lawsuit contends that multiple times between 2021 and 2024, attendance and medication show, Eitz “administered” medication to students on days they were absent.

Plaintiffs contend that multiple times Eitz contacted them for medicine that “spilled,” “dropped” or was rendered unusable “by accident.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyers called Eitz’s conduct “extreme and outrageous.”

A jury trial is being sought.

Changes made

District 25 officials said under School Board direction, a committee was formed to embark on a review of the district’s medication management program and procedures, and do an external examination of best practices from a variety of school-based and medical sources.

They noted that parents had input in the process.

In August, the district’s enhanced medication management protocols were approved, Scapillato and Kaye said.

Highlights of the protocol changes, the district officials said, include:

● Defined roles and responsibilities for all involved parties — including parents, students, registered nurses, certified school nurses, school administrators, and district administrators — to ensure consistent, safe, and effective student medication management.

● Stricter guidelines to ensure that medications are counted and verified at parent drop-off. In addition, the district will now maintain no more than a 30-day supply of any student medication. All medications must be provided in the original prescription container and in the required dosage/format.

Eitz faces forgery charges for allegedly falsifying records and child endangerment charges for allegedly giving children over-the-counter medication in place of their actual prescriptions.

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com