A tenured Cherokee School gym teacher who was terminated after being charged with public indecency will fight for his job in a hearing this fall.
Cherokee School, which garnered national attention because of a test cheating scandal last school year, terminated teacher James O`Neill in April, said Raymond Hardee, acting superintendent of District 67.
The termination came 10 months after a misdemeanor complaint was filed against O`Neill for allegedly exposing himself in a west suburban Cook County Forest Preserve.
O`Neill initially pleaded guilty, but he later changed his plea to not guilty. He was given two years of court supervision by a Cook County judge, said Wayne Giampietro, O`Neill`s attorney.
”The first one (plea) was done improperly under the law,” said Giampietro, who was not O`Neill`s attorney at that time. ”Certainly he was not asked if he understood the plea or the consequences of his plea.”
Cherokee school officials did not hear about the incident until last November, and they then immediately suspended O`Neill with pay until he was dismissed, Hardee said.
”He was never with children after that,” Hardee added.
An Illinois State Board of Education official will oversee a closed hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 17 and 18, to determine whether O`Neill can regain his job.
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