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BULLYING PREVENTION
A new approach
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Lamb turns down offer; trial date scheduled By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Sarah Nader â snader@shawmedia.com
Math teacher Jamie Buck poses for a portrait inside her classroom Tuesday at Prairie Ridge High School. Buck started an anti-bullying program in her classroom after one of her students committed suicide.
Local districts out ahead of new bullying law By JEFF ENGELHARDT jengelhardt@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE â Jamie Buck knows there is no law that will stop bullying. Gov. Pat Quinn recently signed a law requiring school districts to provide bullying prevention and response systems, but Buck, a Prairie Ridge High School math teacher, is striving for more than a law that rein-
forces what most school districts already have. After losing a student a year and a half ago, Buck was inspired to get more involved in her studentsâ lives and help them build self-confidence. She started a program where she gives them a weekly challenge on Monday morning and saves time Friday to discuss whether they met the challenge and what they learned.
âAnti-bullying programs are about telling bullies not to be bullies, so we took a different approach,â Buck said. âI wanted to help my students be sure of who they are and confident in who they are so if they hear those [bullying] comments it wonât affect them.â Buckâs weeklong challenges include staying off social media, no cursing, smiling at people the students pass in the hall and
telling three adults they appreciate them. Buck said she was nervous when she first started the challenges, but the students have embraced them and it even helped repair one mother-daughter relationship. âStudents are usually only concerned with how something can help or hurt their grades, so I wasnât sure if they would do
See BULLYING, page A4
âAnti-bullying programs are about telling bullies not to be bullies so we took a different approach.â Jamie Buck, Prairie Ridge math teacher
WOODSTOCK â Standing before the judge and eyeing the prosecutor who once offered him immunity on first-degree murder charges, Shane Lamb called the attorney a âbully.â âYouâre trying to bully me into taking [a plea deal for] something I didnât do,â Lamb said, looking directly at Assistant Stateâs Attorney Michael Combs. Lamb, 30, rejected an offer from Combs, who also is chief of the Stateâs Attorneyâs Criminal Division. A trial date was set for Nov. 3. Shane Lamb Heâs accused of breaking into a McHenry condominium in April and Afternoon stealing a safe containing Drive 12 guns, ammunition and other valuables. The guns Get the have never been recovlatest headered. lines emailed Prosecutors offered straight to Lamb a deal to enter a your inbox blind guilty plea to aggraeach weekvated possession of a stoday afternoon len firearm in exchange by signing up for dropping a slightly for Afternoon more serious weapons Drive at charge. Aggravated possession NWHerald. of a stolen firearm carries com/newsa sentencing range of six to letter. 40 years, but Lamb would be eligible for day-for-day credit. In other words, if McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather sentenced him to the maximum, heâd be eligible for release after 20 years. Agreeing to the deal could have potentially shaved 5½ years off the maximum sentence on the charge of an armed habitual criminal. Though a sentence would ultimately be up to Prather, the judge can consider Lambâs criminal history, which includes attempted murder as a juvenile, and various drug and battery charges. Prather also presided over Mario Casciaroâs murder trials, in which Lambâs testimony played
See LAMB, page A4
Election board certifies ballot without term limits, Greens bernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner that would have limited members of the General The Illinois State Board of Assembly to eight years in ofElections certified the Novem- fice. While it had more than ber ballot without a consti- enough signatures, its backers tutional amendment on term have fought a losing battle in limits and without an Illinois court â both lower and appelGreen Party that just two gu- late courts have maintained bernatorial elections ago cap- that the amendment exceeded tured 10 percent of the popular the narrow parameters set in vote. the Illinois Constitution for The board on Friday did citizen-led revision. not include an amendment The appellate court ruled backed by Republican gu- Wednesday against the pro-
By KEVIN P. CRAVER
kcraver@shawmedia.com
STATE
posal, and supporters on Thursday filed an emergency petition to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to weigh in and Bruce extend the Fri- Rauner day deadline for the election board to certify the ballot. Board members also denied the entire slate of Green Party candidates for the executive
offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller. A challenge to the partyâs petitions successfully lowered the number of signatures below the 25,000 needed for non-established parties to get on the November ballot. The Green Party sued in federal court last July, alleging that the more stringent requirements for ânewâ parties to get ballot access is un-
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constitutional. But a federal judge on Thursday rejected the partyâs motion to be included on the ballot. While his ruling sympathized with some of the partyâs grievances, he said he could not put its executive candidates on the ballot by fiat and violate a signature requirement that past court cases have upheld as constitutional. He also chided the Greens for not taking the issue to court earlier, knowing the hurdles involved in getting on
the ballot. The partyâs gubernatorial candidate, Harvard attorney Scott Summers, said plaintiffs are still reviewing their legal options as to pursuing an administrative review. Election board members also tossed two Green state representative candidates and its U.S. Senate candidate from the ballot. However, the party is
See TERM LIMITS, page A4
Johnsburg man seeks support Chicago Johnnyâs owner looks to bring pizza place to hometown of Johnsburg / E1
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