After deliberating behind closed doors for almost two hours, the Township High School District 214 School Board voted unanimously Thursday night to uphold its suspension of a 15-year-old student, one of three freshman football players from Prospect High School barred from school in March after allegations of a sexual attack on a teammate.
In May, the student was granted a new hearing after Cook County Circuit Judge Albert Green reversed the school board’s decision to expel the teen through December, saying the hearing had byeen jeopardized by hearsay and other unreliable evidence.
After deciding not to appeal Green’s ruling, the school board held another hearing last week before Thursday’s closed session. Immediately after the session, the board voted to uphold the student’s suspension through December.
Afterward, board President Mimi Cooper would only say that the board had “discussed all the issues before us” and would be issuing a formal statement Friday.
Last week the boy’s mother said that, if the school board decided to uphold the original ruling to expel the teen, the family will search for a home tutor, rather than enroll their son in a District 214 alternative school for teens.
The boy and two other 15-year-old members of the freshman football team face criminal charges in connection with an incident in which they allegedly held down a teammate in a locker room and sexually assaulted him with an object.
If found delinquent in Juvenile Court, the teens could face punishment ranging from probation to incarceration in a youth prison.
