School and officer drove teen to suicide, family says
CHICAGO -- Parents of students who attend classes at a school in Illinois say administrators and resource officers are bullying their children, CBS Chicago reports.
The alleged verbal attacks are occurring at Naperville North High School, where Corey Walgren attended before he tragically committed suicide.
"He was in a panic. I know he thought his whole life was over," Walgren's mother, Maureen, said.
Walgren died when he jumped off of a parking garage after he was interrogated by a school resource officer and the 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," one teenager, who was interrogated three months before Walgren's death, said.
Both the teenager 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 teenager recalled.
But his phone was clean.
Walgren, however, was accused of having video from a consensual sex act. His mother says school officials told him he could end up as a registered sex offender.
Both families say Officer Brett Heun made the threats and interrogated the minors without their parents.
"Students have civil rights. Your rights are not diminished as soon as you step foot on school ground," said Michelle Mbekeani-Wiley, a Shriver Center attorney and expert on school resource officers.
Illinois does not have specific rules on how resource officers should operate in schools, according to Mbekeani-Wiley.
"If it doesn't warrant a call to 911, then they should not be involved," she said.
Twenty-one other states do require that type of agreement.
The Walgren family says the school and police literally scared their son to death.
"The hardest part is we miss him, just living without him," Maureen Walgren said.
Police ultimately cleared Officer Heun for any wrongdoing in Walgren's case. A Naperville city attorney said Heun does not recall being involved in the other teen's case. The officer declined comment to CBS Chicago.
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.
