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Coffee fund legal fees add up to $64K NIU paid defendants’ bills By ERIC R. OLSON
Illustration by R. Scott Helmchen - shelmchen@shawmedia.com
eolson@shawmedia.com
CYBERBULLYING
EXPANDING THE DEFINITION Districts in Illinois add harassment over the Internet to behavior under schools’ purview By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com These days, what happens on the computer can ripple throughout school hallways and classrooms. It’s been coined cyberbullying, and it is now a violation of the Bullying Prevention Act and could result in bullies being asked to hand over online passwords to their social media accounts. As of Jan. 1, the Bullying Prevention Act was modified to include cyberbullying, defined as bullying through the use of technology or any electronic communication – and the act is taken seriously in DeKalb schools, administrators said. “It’s ever-changing,” said Kathy Countryman, superintendent of Sycamore School District 427. “There’s so many new applications or websites that everyone has access to. But sometimes students utilize them in a way that’s not very kind to someone else.” The Illinois Association of School Boards began lobbying to include cyberbullying in the Bullying Prevention Act in 2012, the same year the association took a position on cyberbullying, according to Jim Russell, associate executive director of communications and production services for the association. Before the days of social media, any school-related bullying happened from the time a student got on the bus in the morning to the time they returned home in the afternoon, said Doug Moeller, superintendent for DeKalb School District 428. “Now when we talk about cyberbullying and sending stuff from their computers, it’s made it more of a slippery slope,” he said. “The nexus is if it causes significant disruption to the educational process. Quite often cyberbullying escalates into physical violence. When it rises to that level, we can look outside the scope of the school day.” In District 428, students learn about the maxim: “Anything you put online, you better expect
DeKALB – Northern Illinois University paid more than $64,000 to cover legal fees for nine people charged in the coffee fund investigation, records show. The university’s Board of Trustees also has approved changes to its policy on when it will cover employees’ legal bills in the future. The employee legal bills were paid under indemnification agreements. The uni- Robert versity covered legal Albanese costs for all nine of those who were indicted, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. That includes three people – Robert Albanese, Lawrence Murray and Kenneth Pugh – who received court supervision in connection with violations of the state property control act. One of the three, Albanese, had already left his role as associate vice president of finance and facilities
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Doug Moeller District 428 superintendent
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See COFFEE, page A9
Six officers charged in death of Freddie Gray By JULIET LINDERMAN and AMANDA LEE MYERS
We tell students that if [they] do engage in this type of activity, there are consequences to it. It’s a way to say bullying online is no different than bullying face-to-face.
when he was charged. All three of the people who accepted plea agreements successfully completed court supervision and had the conviction removed from their record. Lawrence The episode Murray sparked changes not only in NIU’s indemnification policy, but also led to legislation in Springfield, where one state lawmaker has proposed eliminating indemnificaKenneth tion for university and local government Pugh employees altogether. Murray, a manager in the Materials Management Department who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in May 2013, was the last to be paid. The university paid him $7,544 for legal expenses on March 20, records show. Murray had been required to reimburse NIU $4,000 as part of his plea agreement.
The Associated Press BALTIMORE – Rage turned to relief in Baltimore on Friday when the city’s top prosecutor charged six police officers with felonies ranging from assault to murder in the death of Freddie Gray. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Gray’s arrest was illegal and unjustified, and that his neck was broken because he was handcuffed, shackled and placed head-first into a police van, where his pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored as he bounced around inside the small metal box. The swiftness of her announcement, less than a day after receiving the police department’s criminal
investigation and official autopsy results, took the city by surprise. So too did her detailed description, based in part on her office’s independent investigation, of the evidence supporting probable cause to charge all six officers with felonies. The police had no reason to stop or chase after Gray, Mosby said. They falsely accused him of having an illegal switchblade when in fact it was a legal pocketknife. The van driver and the other officers failed to strap him down with a seatbelt, a direct violation of department policy, and they ignored Gray’s repeated pleas for medical attention, even rerouting the van to pick up another passenger. Mosby did not say whether there
See BALTIMORE, page A9
your grandmother is going to see it,” Moeller said. “We tell students that if [they] do engage in this type of activity, there are consequences to it,” Moeller said. “It’s a way to say bullying online is no different than bullying face-to-face.” In March, Ryan Goodman, a resource officer in Sycamore schools, gave a presentation about websites and phone apps students are using, but probably shouldn’t be, such as Tinder and ChatRoulette, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter that cyberbullies are using for the wrong reasons. “It’s something we have to continuously stay on top of,” Countryman said. In 2014, the Right to Privacy in the School Setting Act went into effect, and state school districts were responsible for sending letters to parents stating that school officials, if necessary, can ask for students’ passwords to social media AP photo
See CYBERBULLYING, page A8
Dominique Cunningham celebrates Friday, after State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby announced criminal charges against all six officers suspended after Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody in Baltimore.
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