Teacher who lived with student wins DCFS appeal
A Hoffman Estates High School math teacher who resigned after school officials learned that a male student lived in her apartment for a month has won an appeal against the findings of an investigation of her actions by the Department of Children and Family Services.
Although Hoffman Estates police closed their investigation Jan. 11 without taking any action, DCFS concluded there was reasonable cause to suspect a sexual relationship had occurred between the student and the woman.
DCFS officials said in January the woman had been put in a state central database of individuals DCFS deems to be perpetrators of abuse and neglect.
On Thursday, DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe confirmed that an administrative law judge made a recommendation to remove the woman from the list on Feb. 23 and that the director of DCFS issued a letter on March 8 stating that the woman had won her appeal.
“The net effect of that is her name comes off the list of the state central register,” he said, adding that now if an employer did a background check on the woman, nothing about her would show in DCFS records.
The Daily Herald has not used the woman's name because she wasn't charged with a crime.
School officials were notified in early September that the teacher and student were living in the same apartment, and within two days the student's belongings were removed from her home.
According to school documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the teacher said the student moved in with her about a week before the 2011-12 school year started with the approval of his mother, who had moved out of the district.
The teacher told school officials she had been tutoring the student and when the student learned his mother was planning to move, he became worried he would fall behind in school without the teacher's help.
The teacher agreed to let the student live with her for the school year, and she provided him with financial support, food, clothes and a car.
The teacher was placed on administrative leave without pay Sept. 22 and was formally suspended by the district at the beginning of November. On Nov. 10, she resigned.
District 211 spokesman Tom Petersen would not comment on the latest ruling.
An investigation by the Illinois State Board of Education remains open, spokeswoman Mary Fergus said Thursday. The board has yet to make a decision on whether to revoke the woman's teaching license.
The woman's lawyer, Kent Dean, said he felt that overall people misconstrued the whole situation.
“It's just what they (the teacher and student) said it was from the beginning: she's a Samaritan,” he said, adding he wasn't allowed to disclose details of the hearing before the administrative law judge, which lasted for two days.
“He had a chance to graduate,” Dean said of the student. “She saved him.”