Naperville dad's testimony rejected along with school discipline proposal

SPRINGFIELD - Despite graphic, shocking testimony from the father of an alleged 11-year-old sexual assault victim, an Illinois House committee rejected Wednesday efforts to clarify student discipline laws in the wake of the Naperville incident.

"The assumption most people make is that boys will be boys, but I am here to tell you this was not a pantsing. This was not a wedgie. This was an order of magnitude way beyond that, and frankly our conscience and view of the world sometimes will not allow us to believe that middle schoolers, 11- or 12-year-old boys, would be capable of the level of crime that occurred," the father told members of the House Juvenile Justice Reform Committee.

The issue presented to lawmakers is how schools are allowed to respond to incidents that occur away from school grounds.

State Rep. Darlene Senger, a Naperville Republican, proposed legislation intended to spell out that school districts such as Naperville's Indian Prairie Unit District 204, where all the boys involved attended school, could remove students who face pending felony charges and place them in an alternative school.

But Democrats balked. Rockford state Rep. Chuck Jefferson called the idea "knee jerk" and "unnecessary." The committee vote was 4-3, but it needed five votes to clear the nine-member panel. The support came from Republicans while Democrats opposed it and also accounted for absences.

Supporters said they were outraged at the committee antics.

"This is a sad day," said state Rep. Dennis Reboletti, an Elmhurst Republican who voted for the legislation. "It's absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous."

In this case, police say an attack involving Gregory Middle School students occurred Nov. 11 in a home on Naperville's south side. The alleged victim's parents wanted the accused students removed from the school. A 12-year-old and 11-year-old face felony charges of criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault. The 11-year-old also faces a misdemeanor count of battery in a separate, in-school incident involving the same alleged victim.

Recently, one of the accused transferred out of District 204 to Lincoln Junior High School in neighboring Naperville Unit District 203. A court order is keeping the other student at Gregory Middle School but 100 feet away from that classmate.

DuPage County Assistant Regional Superintendent John Glimco told the committee it would be illegal for school officials to remove the student without a change to the law, which he supported.

"It would be foolish of us to believe that just because something happens outside of school grounds it would never have an impact on the general welfare of students in schools," he said.

The father said the change would have not only protected his son but his classmates who are aware of the incident and in many instances have expressed concern.

"All of the students at my son's middle school know what happened and know who the (accused) are," the boy's father said.