Homewood-Flossmoor High School District 233 will pay $3.5 million to settle a 2022 lawsuit brought by a now former student who claimed school officials failed to protect her from an alleged sexual assault at the Flossmoor school.

Then a 17-year-old junior at Homewood-Flossmoor, she claimed a male student at the school raped her at the end of October 2022, but had been harassing and making sexual advances toward her for some weeks before the assault, according to the lawsuit.

In a message to district families posted on its website Tuesday, the District 233 Board said the district’s insurance carrier entered into a settlement agreement late last week with the former student. Her attorney, Stephanie White, confirmed the settlement Tuesday.

The district said the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by the district or its staff and district funds will not be used to fund the settlement. It will be paid by its insurance company.

During a news conference at White’s Chicago office, the former student said she was frustrated by the settlement.

“The whole point of going to trial was to get some type of justice for what happened, it wasn’t about the money,” she said.

With the district not admitting any wrongdoing, the student said it “shows it’s still nothing to them,” and “it’s no relief.”

Her attorneys said the assault took place and other female students at Homewood-Flossmoor have had similiar assaults.

The lawsuit alleged the male student and the victim were instructed to rehearse lines alone in a practice room when he “slammed her onto a table” then “forcibly, sexually assaulted her.”

Flossmoor police were called to the school that day and took a male student into custody before returning him to his family

In its message to district families, H-F said the assault allegations were investigated by local law enforcement authorities, and no charges were filed by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

“Only the two students involved know what actually occurred,” the statement reads.

The lawsuit alleged the male student had displayed knives in front of other students and had, for some weeks, “demonstrated an unwanted and inappropriate sexual interest” toward the plaintiff, who had “openly and repeatedly rejected” his advances.

The student did not reported the advances to school officials, but the day of the Oct. 31 assault told a classmate about what happened, according to her attorney.

The student was interviewed by a school nurse and the girl’s family was notified.

A few days after the alleged assault, hundreds of Homewood-Flossmoor students walked out of class in protest in what some said was indifference by school administration to prior student complaints about sexual assault and sexual harassment

The district said that, after the alleged assault, some 85 students gathered after school to talk with social workers, school counselors and school psychologists.

Topics covered included relationships with school staff to build a sense of safety as well as district safety measures and enforcement of them, according to the district.

The district, in its Monday statement, said it “acted with care, urgency, and in accordance with its legal responsibilities.”

“We invest heavily in resources, personnel, training, policies and technology to ensure the safety of every student within our school, and we will continue to do so,” the school board said.

The district’s board said several factors played into the decision to settle the case.

If the district had chosen to go against the insurance carrier’s decision to settle and chose to continue the litigation, district funds would have been required to pay legal fees and any judgment, the district said.

The district said there “were a number of unexpected, highly questionable and unfavorable pre-trial rulings that adversely impacted our counsel’s ability to present a robust defense at trial.”

“The Board’s fiduciary responsibility is to protect the district and its resources and avoid prolonged litigation that could take away from the school’s ability to pursue its core mission.”