Schools

D-207 to Discuss Personnel Related to Hazing Investigation

A special meeting for the Maine Township High School District 207 Board of Education is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Dec. 19.

A special meeting of the Maine Township High School District 207 Board of Education to discuss personnel matters related to the investigation into bullying and hazing allegations was scheduled for Wednesday.

The meeting will include an opportunity for public comment, said David Beery, spokesperson for D-207. The board will go into closed executive session, Beery said, return to open session and take a vote, if needed, on any personnel matter.

Five D-207 employees were reassigned following the allegations of bullying and hazing. Michael Divincenzo and Emilio Rodriguez have teaching contracts with D-207 and are coaches at Maine West High School in Des Plaines. Divincenzo and Rodriguez were reassigned with pay, pending the result of D-207’s investigation into the bullying and hazing allegations. Three additional D-207 employees that were hired to coach were reassigned without pay.

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Divincenzo and Rodriguez are not permitted on school property, as part of the reassignment, Beery said. The three additional coaches are not working at any D-207 high school, he said.

Beery said he could not say at this time whether D-207 completed its investigation into the allegations of bullying and hazing.

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D-207 board members also discussed the bullying and hazing allegations at the previous meeting on Dec. 3.

Supporters of Divincenzo and Rodriguez have called on followers of a Facebook page, “Support for Divo and Coach Rodriguez,” to show support for the coaches at the meeting.

and other D-207 administrators and faculty were named in a lawsuit filed by the parents of four current and former Maine West students in November that accused them of knowingly allowing their children to be physically and sexually assaulted by other children as part of recurring bullying and hazing incidents.

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