www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1421678,District-204-disciplinary-policy_na020909.article
District 204 to review disciplinary policyFebruary 10, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
Facing a wave of criticism for its handling of a recent, off-campus sexual assault involving three of its students, Indian Prairie School District 204 has decided to scrutinize its disciplinary policies during an upcoming meeting.
Before a boardroom packed with concerned parents, board President Mark Metzger announced that, in response to the matter, district officials will review their policies on student discipline, comparing them to those of other districts, during a Feb. 23 work session.
During the meeting, officials stressed they could not discuss specific details of the incident in which, according to Naperville Sun reports, an 11-year-old boy who attends Gregory Middle School was allegedly assaulted Nov. 11 in a private residence by two of his classmates, ages 11 and 12.
Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office has filed felony charges of criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse against the accused youths, along with misdemeanor charges of battery. The boys will be prosecuted as juveniles.
Board member Curt Bradshaw said he, like most everyone in the room, had pondered the situation over the past week, and had “concluded that common sense and compassion demands that the victim of a violent felony deserves to be protected from his attackers.”
Consequently, he prepared for the board’s consideration a draft of a “victim’s rights policy,” which states that “regardless of the location of conduct, a student who has been charged, convicted, or pled guilty in a court of law to a violent felony against another student in their school shall be reassigned to another school within the district or placed in an alternative education program for a period of three years.”
Roughly a dozen concerned parents, including those of the alleged victim, pressed for such a policy change during the public comment portion of the agenda, which concluded the meeting.
The alleged victim’s father told the board he understood the meeting was a “difficult forum” for a discussion on the matter to occur, but, he added, he and others had tried to communicate their concerns about the situation to district administrators and were “rebuffed.” So, he said, he and other parents, who, along with their children, “know the facts and know the details of who, what, where, why this occurred, and the mild response so far,” were compelled to bring them to the board.
And he insisted “the district has sufficient board policy relative to student discipline on aggressive, hostile behavior to resolve this matter.”
However, he said, the district “by their inaction in this instance, has created a disruptive, hostile and intimidating learning environment at Gregory Middle School for all students by returning the offenders to the class with their victims and his classmates.”
“Our son showed extreme courage in coming forward to tell us, the school and the police of these incidents,” said the father. “Think of the courage he has to muster every single day to face his attackers on the bus stop, in the halls, in the cafeteria, in the common areas.”
He then asked the board to “show similar courage,” and “remove the perpetrators” from Gregory.
However, Elizabeth Reed, a District 204 mother and an attorney, pointed out that the alleged offenders are “innocent until proven guilty.”
‘These kids have been charged,” she said. “They haven’t been convicted, but we’re all acting now as (though) they have.”
Reed’s comments rang similar to those District 204 Superintendent Stephen Daeschner released to The Sun last week. He said the alleged attack is “a legal issue that happened outside of our school, and the court has not decided an outcome.”
“While we wait for the legal proceedings to move forward, we are doing all we can with this sensitive situation, to ensure a safe and effective learning environment for all students,” Daeschner said. “While the district can’t provide specifics on student discipline matters, I assure you the school has taken action to prioritize student safety.”
Parents on-hand Monday appeared to take issue with that statement.
Mark Thoreau insisted the district could, if it wanted to, comment without naming names or detailing disciplinary actions taken against specific students.
“It has chosen not to,” he said, “and, in so doing, has said to the victims of the future, ‘Don’t look to your school. Don’t look to your teacher. You’ll have to find help somewhere else.’”
Thoreau also insinuated safety hadn’t been prioritized because the district simply doesn’t have a policy to appropriately deal with the situation.
“We have a policy that says if someone comes to school in disruptive clothing, they will be sent home if disruptive to the learning environment,” Thoreau said. “But apparently having students who can rightly be classified as sexual predators in the classroom isn’t nearly as disruptive as spaghetti straps and short shorts.”