Three years after he failed to report sex abuse allegations at a North Side high school, the top official overseeing Chicago Public Schools’ military instruction program quietly resigned.
That resignation is the end of a saga that shows how military education leaders in Chicago failed to follow district rules — with devastating consequences for students who weren’t protected. The events happened in what CPS says is the nation’s largest Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or JROTC, program, enrolling 7,300 students across 44 schools.
The official, Col. Daniel L. Baggio, signed a severance agreement last semester with the district after an investigation by CPS’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) exposed “systemic failures” regarding his oversight of JROTC.
In February 2019, Baggio failed to notify state and local officials of the suspected abuse of a student at Roosevelt High School, according to the investigation. A JROTC instructor there continued to sexually abuse the student for another nine months before he was arrested, Chicago police records show.
Details of Baggio’s resignation and the watchdog’s investigation into his mishandling of abuse allegations are detailed in court documents and police and district records obtained by WBEZ and Chalkbeat through public records requests.
Since CPS began rewriting its policies for protecting students from sexual misconduct in 2018 following an abuse scandal exposed by the Chicago Tribune, IG records show that at least a half dozen CPS JROTC instructors and administrative personnel were implicated for either abusing students or, as in the case of Baggio, failing to report abuse.
The departure of Baggio raises questions about whether a recent overhaul of sexual misconduct protocols by CPS is being evenly applied to ancillary programs such as military courses and charter schools.
In response to questions, CPS issued a statement citing its efforts to stem abuse and said the district applies its student protection protocols to JROTC and all other programs. A CPS spokesperson said the district conducted specialized training for JROTC staff this year.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Army Cadet Command, which oversees Army JROTC units, said the agency has opened an investigation into the events involving Baggio and CPS’ JROTC program. The investigation involves “examining our processes for addressing alleged violations of both school administrative policies and Cadet Command policies.”
Baggio did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Oversaw 120 military instructors
District personnel records show that Baggio, 63, joined CPS in 2013 after a 30-year military career specializing in public affairs. After a few years teaching JROTC to high school students, the district put him in charge of overseeing 120 military instructors operating across nearly four dozen Chicago campuses.
In 2019, sexual abuse allegations surfaced at Roosevelt High School, in Albany Park, against an instructor named Brian Travis. A student alerted another military instructor that “something is going on” between Travis and a female student who was 16 years old, according to the IG’s investigation.
That instructor, Sgt. Marvin Jamison, said he told Baggio about the allegations the same day. Baggio then instructed Jamison to speak with Travis about being careful with “what he’s doing” and to “watch” how he behaves, the OIG report said.
Jamison confronted Travis, telling him “the word around here is that you’re messing around with one of these kids” and said “it needs to stop,” the report said.
That evening, Travis texted the student about his concern that Jamison would report him. Travis later told the student that he could hire someone to kill Jamison for $2,000 to conceal the fact that they were having sex, according to police records cited by the watchdog.
The OIG concluded Baggio did not report the alleged abuse to Roosevelt’s leadership or to state child welfare officials. That inaction violated CPS policy and state law.
The OIG found that Baggio also violated district policy by encouraging a direct conversation with Travis, which risked interfering with the investigation. Baggio later told the OIG that addressing the matter with the target of an allegation was “standard practice” in the JROTC program.
Baggio told the OIG he did not take any other action because he didn’t have specific details about what was alleged to have happened. Baggio said he did not believe that he mishandled the situation because he never attempted to cover anything up, according to the OIG.
Instructor arrested for assault
At the end of the school year in 2019, Travis was reassigned from Roosevelt to an administrative role in the district’s central office and, at Baggio’s request, given a pay raise, CPS records show.
That Christmas, Travis was arrested on sexual assault charges while attempting to board a flight to Mexico. Prior to Travis’s arrest, the student victim told police that Travis, then 46, had threatened to kill her, her family and friends if she disclosed their relationship, according to police reports.
Travis ended up pleading guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse in 2020. He was sentenced to time served and four years probation and was required to register as a sex offender.
Travis did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.
Baggio continued to run the JROTC program until last November, when he was suspended with pay while the district investigated the Travis case and a separate case at Marine Leadership Academy in Logan Square. There, 13 adults — including three military instructors — were found to have committed or covered up sexual misconduct, according to an OIG investigation.
The OIG found that the district’s military education leaders failed to conduct proper oversight of military instructors at Marine.
In emails obtained in a public records request, Baggio wrote that he was “being treated like a pariah” and had “done absolutely nothing wrong.”
Baggio’s severance agreement with CPS cites a “mutual desire of the parties to move in a new direction.” According to the agreement, Baggio was not placed on CPS’ “do not hire” list, but he agreed not to seek future employment with the district.
The military’s U.S. Army Cadet Command has not made a final decision on whether Baggio will be decertified as a JROTC official, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the agency did not play a role in CPS’ investigation of Baggio or his resignation.
Baggio remained employed — and kept some benefits — until June 30. A CPS spokesperson said his position is now vacant.
Alex Ruppenthal is a freelance journalist based in Chicago. This story was published through a partnership between WBEZ and Chalkbeat Chicago.
