Criminals in school? Who knows?

January 30, 2008
BY ERIN CALANDRIELLO Staff Writer
ELGIN -- Elgin School District U46 officials say they're usually in the dark when it comes to students' criminal backgrounds.

"I don't know what kids are out there and have what," said Pat Broncato, Elgin School District U46's chief legal officer. "They (students) may be under investigation for something, but that may never come to fruition; or they may not have done what they're under investigation for. So we're not made aware of who they are."

Law enforcement and judicial entities across the nation -- including the Elgin Police Department, the Kane County and Cook County state's attorney's offices and the Kane County Child Advocacy Center -- don't release students' juvenile records because of stringent laws regarding a minor's right to privacy, according to Douglas Thomas, a research associate at the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

The nonprofit center acts as the research division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, based in Pittsburgh, Pa.

"There's a fairly strict universal code of not sharing juvenile court records, seeing that confidentiality is one of the founding principles of the juvenile justice system," Thomas said.

An exception is "if a juvenile has been adjudicated and is sentenced; then the sentencing order can be turned over to an education system that has him as a pupil," said Steve Beckett, a professor and director of trial advocacy at the College of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

However, Broncato said that even without a student's juvenile record, schools can be put in the loop when the student offense "extends to issues that involve school districts, whether it occurs on school property or creates a disruption at school."

That was at least partly the case with Angel Facio, a 16-year-old student at Elgin High School who was charged as a juvenile in Cook County with attempted murder, aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon in connection with the Jan. 18 stabbing attack on EHS teacher Carolyn Gilbert in her classroom.

Prior suspicions

Facio was indicted as an adult by a Kane County grand jury Friday in connection with the Aug. 13 sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in her east-side Elgin home. In that case, he faces six counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault.

He also is expected to be charged in connection with a third incident, the attempted abduction of a 13-year-old girl that authorities say occurred just two days before the teacher stabbing.

The school district was not informed by law enforcement officials that Facio was a suspect in the sexual assault or attempted abduction until after the attack at Elgin High, according to Broncato.

Whether school safety outweighs one's right to privacy is a question that "I can't answer," said Broncato.

Even so, Thomas said, "these confidentiality laws are so hard core that it makes it pretty difficult to research the juvenile justice system, let alone help these kids out."

The wall of privacy doesn't end there. It also applies to school districts. The Illinois Student Records Act and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulate school districts in their access to and use of student records.

Broncato said the amount of student information handed over to inquiring entities also depends on who's asking for it and what it concerns. If, for example, an entity is asking "for medical records or confidential files, the district would need to get parental consent or a court order," he said.

In any case, the community needs to keep in mind "that we are neither a police department nor a state's attorney's office; we are a school district," said Broncato, "and our first and foremost goal is to educate students, not to prosecute or investigate them."



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I don't know if this story was posted before. The teacher was stabbed in the neck 5 times (I think) Maybe 4 with a steak knife and once near her eye....she lost her eye as the result......