Senate OKs letting schools remove students accused of crimes

SPRINGFIELD - Legislation to allow school districts such as Naperville's Indian Prairie 204 to remove students who face criminal charges and place them in an alternative school passed the Illinois Senate Wednesday.

State Sen. Randy Hultgren, a Winfield Republican, sponsored the plan that cleared the Senate 33-23 and advances to the state House.

"They realize that it is something that school districts aren't going to use lightly, because it is serious," Hultgren said of the possible newfound power to remove students. "But a forcible felony is serious, too."

The legislation follows a case in Naperville where an 11-year-old student allegedly was the victim of a sexual assault at a home on Naperville's south side. Parents of the victim wanted the two alleged attackers removed from the school. Those schoolmates, ages 11 and 12 at the time, face felony charges of criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault. The 11-year-old also faces a misdemeanor count of battery for a separate alleged incident involving the same victim - this time in the halls of Gregory Middle School.

The victim of the alleged crimes is currently attending classes at Gregory with a court-ordered 100-foot protection zone separating him from one of the other boys. The other student transferred voluntarily to a school in Naperville Unit District 203.

District 204 officials had declined to move the two students to another middle school in the district and said lawyers advised they could not move the students to an alternative school.

State Rep. Darlene Senger, a Naperville Republican, has attempted to pass identical legislation in the House. But her plan is currently undergoing a legal review by House attorneys.

"Frankly, the legislation may be doing more than the sponsor intended," Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan recently told the Daily Herald. "They are concerned about the ramifications."