Criminals in school? Who knows?

Erin Calandriello:

lgin School District U46 officials say they're usually in the dark when it comes to students' criminal backgrounds.

"I don't know what kids are out there and have what," said Pat Broncato, Elgin School District U46's chief legal officer. "They (students) may be under investigation for something, but that may never come to fruition; or they may not have done what they're under investigation for. So we're not made aware of who they are."

Law enforcement and judicial entities across the nation -- including the Elgin Police Department, the Kane County and Cook County state's attorney's offices and the Kane County Child Advocacy Center -- don't release students' juvenile records because of stringent laws regarding a minor's right to privacy, according to Douglas Thomas, a research associate at the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

The nonprofit center acts as the research division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, based in Pittsburgh, Pa.

"There's a fairly strict universal code of not sharing juvenile court records, seeing that confidentiality is one of the founding principles of the juvenile justice system," Thomas said.

An exception is "if a juvenile has been adjudicated and is sentenced; then the sentencing order can be turned over to an education system that has him as a pupil," said Steve Beckett, a professor and director of trial advocacy at the College of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 4, 2008 3:33 PM
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