Skokie police will continue their presence at Niles Township High School District 219’s campuses under a newly updated agreement that spells out how officers and school administrators should respond to suspected criminal activity.
Revisions to the agreement follow scorn from several district parents
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for the way school officials handled recent criminal allegations brought against a former Spanish teacher at Niles North High School, federally charged with transporting child pornography aboard an international flight.The intergovernmental partnership between the high school district, the Skokie Police Department and the Village of Skokie is hardly a new one. Police officers who are school resource officers (SROs) have been embedded at Niles North and Niles West High Schools since 2004, according to a memorandum from Jesse Barnes, Skokie’s chief of police.
Recent amendments to the Illinois School Code are now requiring local school districts using school resource officers to annually report the number of students referred to police and create a parent-teacher advisory committee to manage district and local law enforcement communication. Schools officials will also be banned from issuing fines to students for code violations.
According to Barnes, the updated agreement formalizes the collaborative practices currently in place at District 219’s high schools while incorporating new statutory requirements.
The crux of this continued partnership will be enhanced “reciprocal reporting,” language in the agreement details.
This includes having school officials report any students suspected to be involved in criminal activity, gang violence, possession of weapons or illegal substances, abuse, vandalism or other related activities to police.
School resource officers, on the other hand, are tasked with reporting to administrators any minor who has been taken into custody or arrested for actions that cause an “imminent threat of physical harm to students, school personnel, or others who are present in the school,” according to the agreement.
Law enforcement records may be exempt from being shared to school officials when the information could jeopardize a pending investigation or judicial proceedings, per the agreement.
For legal purposes, the school resource officer is considered a school official and subsequently held to the same reporting standards for information that is disclosed to them.
“The key enhancement that we wanted to underscore [in this updated agreement] is the strength in communication and accountability through required reporting of all staff misconduct or criminal activity to the superintendent or designee,” said Roszena Haskins, deputy superintendent of District 219, at the School Board’s Aug. 4 meeting.
The updated procedures will “prioritize alternatives to arrest whenever legally permissible and appropriate,” but not at the expense of the well-being and safety of students, staff and the broader school community, Haskins added.
Thomas Neal, 42, the former Niles North teacher currently facing federal charges on allegations he transported hundreds of files of child pornography aboard a flight from Chicago to Mexico in June, per previous reporting, was anonymously reported to administrators at the school level three years prior for a similar offense, according to district officials.
The tip was then forwarded to Skokie police, who investigated the lead but were unable to substantiate the claim, according to District 219 Board President Amber Wood in a July 22 message to families.
“Neither district-level leadership nor the Board of Education were aware of the anonymous report and thus no district-level review of the anonymous report occurred at that time,” Wood wrote in defense of claims the district mishandled the 2023 report about Neal.
Wood added that the charges filed against Neal do not allege any conduct involving current or former district students, school property or district technology.
Neal currently faces one count of transportation of child pornography, punishable by a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a maximum of up to 20 years, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Since Neal’s arrest, parents have questioned the district’s internal processes for reporting suspected criminal activity.
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Wood told parents in July the district was in “active conversations” with the Skokie Police Department to clarify language on reporting to ensure any tips are shared.
Skokie officials clarified at their Aug. 17 Village Board meeting that school resource officers are required to receive additional training on working with students with disabilities and cultural diversity, following reports that Black and brown students at District 219 have historically been “cited more” for suspected criminal activity, according to Trustee Gail Schechter.
Students from Skokie and Lincolnwood and portions of Morton Grove and Niles attend District 219 high schools.