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Febru a r y 21, 2015 • $1 .0 0
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PR’s co-op gymnastics team in place to win title after first day of state finals / C1
HERALD RALD
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McHENRY 4-YEAR-OLD BATTLES RARE EYE CANCER
‘Really quite brave’
HIGH
LOW
29 5
Complete forecast on page A12
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Teacher at CLS placed on leave Faces charges of soliciting sex act By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Andrew Harris, 4, flaps his cotton-stuffed pterodactyl wings in his living room Thursday in McHenry, two days after having his eye removed due to retinoblastoma, an eye cancer that begins in the retina. Knowing why he was going in for surgery, Andrew wore these wings when he went to see his doctor. His mother, Erin, was running for the School District 156 Board when she received the news that her son had cancer; she will not seek election to focus on caring for her son. By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com McHENRY – McHenry residents will see Erin Harris’ name on the April 7 ballot, but she doesn’t want a single vote. Harris, who was running for the McHenry High School District 156 Board, decided in early February to withdraw, but it was too late to officially remove her name. Having been an original organizer of the inaugural St. Baldrick’s event at McHenry High School, Harris was looking to continue to give back to the community by serving on the board, but that idea ended
Boy’s diagnosis stops mom’s campaign, sparks support when her 4-year-old son was diagnosed with one of the rarest forms of cancer. The word retinoblastoma was foreign to Harris until earlier this month. She had sporadically noticed an auburn glow in her son Andrew’s right eye from time and time and only his left eye would appear red in photographs. Harris wasn’t sure what to make of it un-
til one night while helping her son with a bath she saw that the glow was constant. “I covered his right eye and asked him how many fingers I was holding up and he said two and five, and he was fine,” she said. “I covered his left eye, and he immediately told me he couldn’t see and the room was dark.” A trip to the pediatric ophthal-
mologist brought up the possibility of retinoblastoma – eye cancer that can quickly spread – but it was seen as a long shot by doctors because only 200 people a year are diagnosed with the disease and almost all cases are discovered by the time a child turns 18 months old. When results from the ultrasound came back, doctors confirmed it was eye cancer, and it was advanced, with a tumor covering about 75 percent of Andrew’s eye and having ruptured. While Andrew would never regain his
See EYE CANCER, page A4
CRYSTAL LAKE – A longtime Crystal Lake South teacher was arrested this week and charged with soliciting sex during a prostitution sting in Rockford. Brian Akers, 46, of Woodstock, was charged with solicitation of a sexual act by Rockford police who executed a “reverse” prostitution sting Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that resulted in the arrest of eight men. Akers is believed to have responded to a fake prostitution advertisement police placed online. District spokesman Jeff Puma said Brian Akers Akers has been placed on paid administrative leave while the district investigates the incident. Puma stressed that no students or faculty other than Akers were involved or harmed and that the alleged incident took place off campus and not during school hours. As part of the administrative leave, Akers will not be allowed access to any of the district’s online systems or servers and will not be able to enter the school building. Akers has more than 20 years of teaching experience at District 155 and is making a salary of more than $110,000, according to recent salary reports. He has taught Advanced Placement biology and was a longtime wrestling coach for the Crystal Lake South Gators, but he is no longer coaching. Akers has no other extracurricular roles at the school, Puma said. Also arrested in the prostitution sting was Marengo resident Jeffrey J. Zintl, 52, of Pleasant Grove Road. Zintl also was charged with resisting arrest.
Universities prepare to counter Rauner’s proposed cuts
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Land-grant Universities and an expert on public university funding. After his address, members of Rauner’s budget team said the Bruce Republican governor Rauner believes public universities are better situated to absorb deep cuts than many other state agencies because they have other sources of revenue. Though they are state institutions, state fund-
plan “disturbing news.” The state signaled earlier this winter that universities should prepare for cuts of about 20 percent. But in an interview, Dietz stressed that he believes schools can negotiate more manageable cuts. Next month leaders from the state’s public universities will formally make their cases during hearings in Springfield, but lawmakers A STARTING POINT who hope to push the governor’s proIllinois State University President posal back have started talking, too. Larry Dietz sent a message to his See UNIVERSITIES, page A4 campus in which he called Rauner’s
ing for universities been dropping for years. Most of their funding comes from other sources, such as tuition, donors and federal research grants. School administrators point out that most of that money comes with a requirement that it be spent on particular research projects or in a specific academic department.
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mulling what to do if they’re enacted. The 31.5 percent cut Rauner proposed as part of his budget address Wednesday is part of the Republican governor’s starting point in what will be months-long negotiations with By DAVID MERCER Democrats who control the General The Associated Press Assembly. But university adminisCHAMPAIGN – Faced with Gov. trators fear big cuts, even if they are Bruce Rauner’s surprise plan to cut successful at pushing back. their state funding by almost a third, “It’s so Draconian that to walk it Illinois’ public universities are pre- back some still leaves you in a bad paring to argue such drastic reduc- place,” said Peter McPherson, presitions would be a mistake while also dent of the Association of Public and
Gov. seeking to chop funding by 31 percent