Hoffman Estates Teen Fights To Clear Name Of Teacher He Lived With
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (CBS) -- A teenager who lived with one of his high school teachers until the school found out in September is trying to clear the teacher's name.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports
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The 17-year old senior at Hoffman Estates High School talked exclusively with WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya.
We are not naming him nor the teacher who resigned after being suspended when administrators learned the teen was living with her last summer.
On Friday, the teen says he led a sit-in with about 70 students at the school and then met with District 211 Superintendent Nancy Robb and Hoffman Estates High School Principal James Britton. He says the administrators were very cooperative and answered any questions of his that they could. He says they also told him there was nothing they could do about the teacher's situation until police conclude their investigation.
The teen says he believes there was an "over-reaction" by school administrators to put the teacher, who he calls his "godmother," on emergency suspension. He says the matter was "blown out of proportion".
The teen says the math teacher, Miss U as he also sometimes calls her, got him out of a bad home situation and helped improve his grades.
He insists, "There was no type of promiscuity, no type of sexual relations, no type of inappropriate behavior at all. Period."
He goes on to say later in the interview that, "I know for sure I'm not being sexually penetrated, sexually exploited. I'm not being harmed in any way. Nothing ever went on between me and Miss U at all. She's my mother. I call her god mom. I'm her god son."
The student moved in with the teacher last summer when his mother moved out of the school district, which would have forced the teen to change schools for his senior year. He then moved in with the 36-year old teacher who had been tutoring him during the middle of last year.
The teenager says he has told investigators from the Hoffman Estates Police Department and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that they "won't find anything" in the way of evidence that he was sexually abused by the teacher. He says he added that investigators were wasting time and taxpayers' money.
With today's morning sit-in at the school, the teenager says he hopes to "change the ….public view of my godmother, Miss U."
Hoffman Estates Police Chief Michael Hish says the investigation is still going on.
The teenager says he continues to stay in touch with the teacher but says she did not encourage him to take on today's public protest.
He says he doesn't doubt the teacher did something wrong by keeping their living arrangements away from school administrators, but he says she "didn't want me to have to go through the foster care system".
The student says the teacher cares about all her students and would have done the same thing for any one of them, too.
