Illinois AG: Police ticketing at Palatine high schools violated law, unjustly applied to minority students
The Illinois attorney general’s office has completed a two-year study concluding that police ticketing students at two Palatine high schools as a method of punishment violated state law and was disproportionately applied to minority students.
However, the 29-page report signed by Attorney General Kwame Raoul also found the practice had significantly declined at the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 schools since the study began in late spring 2022.
“OAG finds reasonable cause to believe that the district engaged in a pattern and practice of directing Palatine police officers to issue tickets to students in violation of state law, and that this practice imposed an unjustified disparate impact on Black and Hispanic students,” the report reads.
Raoul’s report notes the practice has “largely ended” though.
While the report contends administrators at Palatine and Fremd high schools directed police to issue tickets, District 211 attorney Jennifer Smith disputes that finding, arguing district officials ultimately lack the power.
“Even if administrators had ‘directed’ the school resource officers or other police officers to do so, administrators did not have the authority,” she said. “The only body with the authority to issue tickets or make arrests is the village and law enforcement.”
Smith added Raoul’s report doesn’t address Illinois laws mandating certain conduct by students be reported to law enforcement either.
“At all times during this investigation, the district has offered to work alongside the OAG in an effort to timely and effectively improve any practices,” Smith wrote.
Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen on Wednesday said the goal of police presence is to maintain a safe learning environment.
“Everything that we do in the schools is done within the confines of what the state statutes allow for and what is expected by a Palatine police officer, or any police officer for that matter,” he said. “As long as the (district) wants us in the schools, we will continue to provide that safe environment.”
District 211’s three other high schools in Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg were not included in the study.
According to Raoul’s office, guidance was issued to all Illinois schools in December 2021 on complying with civil rights laws relating to student discipline, including a discussion of police officers in schools. Its study of practices at Palatine and Fremd high schools looked at data going back to 2018, however.
As far as the next steps in its monitoring of District 211’s Palatine schools, Raoul’s report stated, “Our work is by no means complete, and we are focused on collaborating with school district officials as they respond to the recommendations we have provided.”
Among the recommendations in Raoul’s report were reducing ticketing through written policies, requiring school resource officers to document alternative approaches like peer jury or substance abuse programs, and ending efforts to collect on monetary fines.
Daily Herald staff writer Steve Zalusky contributed to this report.