Student Civil Rights Violations Exposed In Wake Of Interrogated Teen's Suicide
(CBS) -- Students bullied and threatened at school -- even told they will end up on the sex offender list.
Families tell the 2 Investigators it's happening at Naperville North High School and the people making the threats are administrators and police resource officers.
CBS 2's Dave Savini reports on the tragic story of Corey Walgren.
"He was in a panic. I know he thought his whole life was over," his mother, Maureen Walgren, says.
Her son died when he jumped off a parking garage after he was interrogated by a Naperville North High School resource officer and dean.
"When you see a police officer there with his badge and gun, first thing you think is you're going to get handcuffed and go to jail," says a teen who was interrogated three months before Corey Walgren's death. (CBS 2 is not naming the youth.)
Both he and Walgren were questioned about what they supposedly had in their phones.
"He told me you're going to be a registered sex offender, you are going to be kicked off all the sports teams," the teen says.
His phone was clean. Walgren was accused of having video from a consensual sex act.
His mother says school officials told him he could end up a registered sex offender.
Both families say Naperville Police Officer Brett Heun made the threats and interrogated the minors without their parents.
Michelle Mbekeani-Wiley is a Shriver Center attorney and expert on school resource officers.
"Students have civil rights. Your rights are not diminished as soon as you step foot in school ground," she says.
Illinois does not have specific rules on how resource officers should operate in schools, she says.
"If it doesn't warrant a call to 9-1-1 call, then they should not be involved," she says.
Twenty-one other states do require that type of agreement.
Naperville's police and school district have a different one, but Mbekeani-Wiley says it lacks critical details, such as when a police officer should get involved and how the school protects a student's civil rights.
The Walgren family says the school and police literally scared Corey to death.
"The hardest part is we miss him, just living without him," Maureen Walgren says.
Naperville police cleared Officer Heun for any wrongdoing in Walgren's case.
A Naperville city attorney says Heun does not recall being involved in the other teen's case. The officer declined comment to CBS 2.
The school district says resource officers support administrators with investigations into student and staff safety, as well as issues that could impact the school environment.
The Walgrens have an ongoing lawsuit against all, including Heun.
