A Chicago Public Schools elementary school teacher who was on the job last year despite being previously accused of inappropriately touching students was sentenced Monday to 50 years in federal prison for molesting a young boy in Indiana whom he’d met online.
Pedro Ibarra, 48, of Elk Grove Village, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, where he pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child.
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According to court records, in June 2021, while Ibarra was still employed by CPS, he engaged in a Google Duo online chat with a then-12-year-old boy who lived in Indiana. Ibarra was a third-grade, dual-language teacher at Alessandro Volta Elementary School in Albany Park, according to online CPS records.
“Pedro Ibarra was at Volta Elementary School from August 2016 until he was suspended without pay on November 25, 2021,” CPS said in a statement Monday. “The District is pursuing termination and the case is currently ongoing.”
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Records show Ibarra kept his CPS job after being accused in Cook County in an earlier case. He was eventually acquitted.
CPS officials did not immediately address Monday how Ibarra stayed with the district.
In the federal case in 2021, Ibarra drove from Illinois to Hancock County, Indiana, where he picked the victim up and took him to local hotel. There, Ibarra performed sex acts on the child while recording it with his cell phone, according to prosecutors.
In addition to that video, investigators found multiple recordings on Ibarra’s phone of him “engaged in sexually explicit conduct” with another victim, who was later identified as a 15-year-old who lives in Illinois, according to prosecutors.
And, there was at least one other previous investigation of sexual misconduct by Ibarra.
According to a recent prosecution filing, in March 2019, a now-9-year-old girl reported that Ibarra had grabbed her buttocks on different occasions at school, and the girl’s then-10-year old brother said Ibarra had done the same thing to him on at least two occasions when he was in 5th Grade.
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In an interview with forensic investigators, the girl reported she’d told her mom what had happened and “her parents went to the school and talked to the principal about it,” according to the prosecution filing.
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“She named Ibarra as the teacher, said he squeezed her bottom more than one time, and on another occasion, she asked to use the restroom and Ibarra touched her bottom,” the filing stated.
The children’s mother, however, said she “did not report what her daughter told her to the school because she thought it was too late and the school would not believe her,” the filing stated.
Two of the brother’s former classmates told investigators that he had reported to them that Ibarra touched him inappropriately, and Ibarra was arrested by Chicago police on April 4, 2019. according to prosecutors. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Ibarra requested to speak with an attorney and the interview ended.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office rejected felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, so the detective instead filed misdemeanor battery charges, according to the federal prosecution memo.
Cook County Associate Judge Clarence Burch found Ibarra not guilty of the charges in a bench trial on March 4, 2020, court records show.
