Niles 1-31-13

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INSIDE

SPORTS Underclassmen now the norm in hoops Page 11

ONLINE More news at buglenewspapers.com

NEWS Seminar educates public on Affordable Care Act

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Our Village, Our News

www.nilesbugle.com

JANUARY 31, 2013

2ND SOCCER COACH FIRED Rodriguez was named in Maine Township hazing lawsuit By Alex V. Hernandez Staff Reporter

After a 3 ½-hour closed session Jan. 24, the Maine Township High School Board has voted unanimously to fire a second soccer coach accused of allowing sexual assault under the guise of hazing on the Des Plaines school’s soccer and baseball teams. Currently, Emilio Rodriguez, Maine West freshman soccer coach, is now suspended without pay. Once he is officially notified of the school board’s vote to dismiss, Rodriguez has 17 days to request for a hearing with the Illinois State Board of Education. “The board believes Mr. Rodriguez violated District 207 Board of Education policy and professional expectations by failing to adequately prevent, recognize, report and punish student hazing,” said Main Township Board President Sean Sullivan in a statement he read after the closed-door

meeting. Prior to the Jan. 24 meeting, the Maine Township school b o a r d s p e n t nearly t h r e e Courtesy Maine Township School Board hours in a n o t h e r Emilio Rodriguez closed session Nov. 19 that resulted in the firing of Michael Divincenzo, the other soccer coach at the center of a hazing scandal at Maine West. Divincenzo recently requested an appeal hearing with the state board via his attorney, and state officials said the appeal process could last as long as a year. Both Divincenzo and Rodriguez were first put on paid leave and reassigned from teaching duties this past fall when the first allegations of hazing on the teams became public in early October. Both

“The board believes Mr. Rodriguez violated

District 207 Board of Education policy and professional expectations by failing to adequately prevent, recognize, report and punish student hazing.” Maine Township Board President Sean Sullivan

men were accused of allowing their varsity players go on a “campus run” that resulted in the hazing of junior players by assaulting them and sodomizing them with fingers and sticks. In addition to being a coach, Rodriguez is also tenured applied arts and technology teacher. Both he and Divincenzo are on record as having denied knowledge of the team’s hazing and initiation of the four alleged hazing victims that brought on the lawsuit against the coaches and the school district. Since their dismissal, neither Divincenzo nor Rodriguez

has made a public statement. Additionally Maine West Principal Audrey Haugan, who is also named in the lawsuit, has not responded to requests for a statement. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has had its Sex Crimes Division reviewing hazing allegations at Maine West, and grand jury subpoenas have been issued. At the Jan. 24 meeting, the school board also decided to hire former assistant U.S. Attorney Sergio Acosta to independently investigate the hazing allegations. ahernandez@buglenewspapers.com

Vol. 57 No. 17

Cold temps claim life of Des Plaines resident By Alex V. Hernandez Staff Reporter

A man from the northwest suburbs is the seventh person reported to have died from the coldest temperatures in the Chicago area has experienced in two years. On Jan. 20, Lawrence Sviontek, 70, of Des Plaines, died due to exposure to cold and hypothermia, with alcoholism also a contributing factor to the death, a spokesperson from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said. That day, temperatures dropped to 14 degrees. The report states that Sviontek was found in his trailer park residence in the 1300 block of Rand Road at 1:15 p.m. and was then declared dead at 4:40 p.m. The death was ruled an accident. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website says hypothermia is often most See EXPOSURE, page 5


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