Thursday, May 16, 2013
Michael Divincenzo faces eight misdemeanor charges related to reports of physical assaults at Maine West High School in Des Plaines in 2012, according to Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
A former varsity boys soccer coach and teacher at Maine West High School faces multiple criminal charges related to reports of bullying and hazing, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez stated on Wednesday. Michael Divincenzo was charged with eight misdemeanor counts including three counts of battery, one count of hazing and four counts of failure to report abuse as mandated, in incidents on June 1, 2012, Aug. 31, 2012 and Sept. 26, 2012, according to court documents. Divincenzo is accused of threatening freshmen students to have the varsity players stick their thumbs up their buttocks if they did not communicate properly during a soccer drill, according to the charges. Freshmen team players were held down by varsity players against …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
A former Maine West High School soccer coach, Michael Divincenzo, faces multiple misdemeanor charges related to reports of hazing at the Des Plaines high school, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Michael Divincenzo, the former varsity boys soccer coach named in a bullying and hazing lawsuit filed by current and former students and their families, was charged on May 15 with multiple misdemeanor charges related to the reports of hazing incidents, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The criminal charges are separate from the civil lawsuit, which was filed by four current and former students. Antonio Romanucci, an attorney representing the students and their families, released the following statement in response to the criminal charges filed against Divincenzo: "The fact that Coach Divincenzo has been criminally charged brings no joy to the families whose children were brutally sexually abused while educators stood idly by allowing it to…
Friday, May 10, 2013
The attorney representing Maine West High School students in a hazing lawsuit stated a report from Maine Township High School District 207 does not address key issues.
The lawyer representing four current and former Maine West High School students and their families in a bullying and hazing lawsuit stated there were significant omissions in a report on hazing incidents in the school district. Maine Township High School District 207 hired an attorney to complete an independent investigation into hazing incidents and policies within the district, and report back to the board of education. That process concluded and D-207 released a copy of a report on the investigation and a statement about it this week. The report stated D-207 and Maine West staff responded properly and appropriately to reports of hazing in September 2012. Antonio Romanucci, the attorney representing the four students in the bullying and …
An independent investigator hired by Maine Township High School District 207 to review hazing incidents and policies within the district reported his findings to the board of education.
An independent investigator hired by Maine Township High School District 207 to review hazing incidents and policies within the district reported that district officials responded appropriately. Sergio Acosta, an attorney at Hinshaw & Culbertson, stated that D-207 and staff at Maine West High School in Des Plaines responded properly and promptly when reports of hazing were made in September 2012, according to a statement from D-207. "The Board is pleased to learn that administrative employees at both the building and District office levels responded appropriately to the hazing allegations," D-207 stated. "The Board isalso pleased to receive Mr. Acosta’s recommendations which will be carefully considered for implementation as part of the …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
The law firm representing four former and current students in a hazing lawsuit against D-207 administrators and faculty claims a letter sent to Dr. Audrey Haugan from the parent of a student at the Des Plaines high school in 2008 is evidence Maine Townshi
A lawyer representing current and former students in the Maine West High School hazing case alleged that the school's principal knew about the abuse in 2008. Antonio Romanucci, of Romanucci & Blandin, said a letter sent to Maine West Principal Audrey Haugan in 2008 showed she knew about the abuse, and did not report it to District 207, as required by law. Ken Wallace, superintendent at D-207, said in November that the first reports the district received of bullying and hazing at the Des Plaines high school were in September 2012. Romanucci addressed the press outside the District 207 boardroom, where members were meeting in closed session about a variety of hazing-related issues. Romanucci said that the school board has acknowledged the …
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Employee discipline and other issues related to the investigation of bullying and hazing reports at Maine West High School in Des Plaines will be discussed by Maine Township High School District 207 Board of Education in Park Ridge on Thursday.
A special school district meeting to discuss a variety of issues related to bullying and hazing reports at Maine West High School in Des Plaines will be held in Park Ridge on Thursday. Maine Township High School District 207 Board of Education voted in favor of initiating the dismissal process on one coach, Michael DiVincenzo, named in a lawsuit filed by four families of current or former students in November at a meeting in December, and other administrators, coaches and district employees are named in the complaint. Listed on the agenda for the closed session portion of the special board meeting, announced by D-207 on Tuesday, are matters related to individual students, appointment, employment, compensation, performance, discipline or …
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Three plaintiffs were added to a lawsuit against Maine West High School that alleges coaches condoned hazing.
A lawsuit against Maine West High School alleges that students were hazed and bullied, sometimes at the behest of coaches of some athletic teams. A police investigation into a hazing incident this year led to charges against six students. During a “campus run” the boy’s teammates grabbed him, according to the lawsuit, tore off his underwear, held him down so he could not resist, grabbed his testicles and sodomized him with their fingers and other foreign objects. Des Plaines police told the Chicago Sun-Times that they sought felony charges in the case, but Cook County prosecutors disagreed. Prosecutors said there was not enough evidence for the more serious charges and settled on misdemeanors, the Sun-Times reported. Since that initial …
Sam
1:21 pm on Thursday, May 16, 2013
In the May 16th Suntimes, the charges were dropped against the students who were involved because their peers (victims) didn't want to press charges. So are these kids saying it wasn't as bad as they claimed? If that's the case what is the coach being charged for? Did the coach force his team to hold down other students on the team and sodomize them? They interviewed 100 people regarding the … more ›