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American Morning

Several Seniors From Glenbrook North High Could Face Severe Punishment

Aired May 12, 2003 - 08:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Illinois, that violent hazing incident at a Chicago area high school was discussed last night at a school board meeting. Several seniors from Glenbrook North High could face severe punishment for their roles in the incident, which sent five junior girls to the hospital.
Kim Parks has a daughter at the school and she also turns out as a graduate of Glenbrook North High.

And she joins us this morning.

Kim, good morning.

KIM PARKS, MOTHER OF GLENBROOK NORTH HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE: Hi. Good morning.

KAGAN: So I understand at the school board meeting the board decided they're going to hire a team of independent investigators to review the cases and then get back to them.

Are you satisfied with what came out of the board meeting last night?

PARKS: Absolutely. The president of the board gave a very strong statement stating their disgust and appallment of the girls' behavior and I feel that they will act accordingly.

KAGAN: So you're just going to have to wait a little bit to find out exactly what will happen to the girls?

PARKS: Yes. That's one area I'm a little confused about, because from Thursday's press conference I understood the principal to state that they cannot release that information, based on each individual, due to confidentiality. So I'm not quite sure how they're going to be able to let us know that action has taken, you know, disciplinary actions have been taken against the girls.

KAGAN: Right, because of privacy issues since we're probably dealing with a number of juveniles here. Also, I understand that principal has come out and said that in a lot of ways the school's hands are tied. This was not a school sanctioned event and this was off campus. So really how much can school officials and school board officials do?

PARKS: Well, yesterday I spent the day or afternoon poring over the students' rights and responsibilities and I do believe there's two sections that allow the board to step in and where they do have authority to expel these girls. One of them is, it falls under the weapons possession. And it basically states that any activity or event which bears a reasonable relationship to school -- and I think we all agree that this has a reasonable relationship to Glenbrook North High School. And they describe a weapon as any object if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm. We know they brought all those objects to cause bodily harm to the junior girls so.

KAGAN: I want to call on your experience at Glenbrook North to put some things in kind of historical perspective here. Back in the day, as we like to say, when you went there, was this powder-puff game, was it still on campus or had it moved off campus?

PARKS: No, it was still on campus. So it was, we had officials on the field. It was flag football. I mean I'm not sure why they canceled it. I disagree that it was due to roughness. But maybe there's something there that I don't know about.

KAGAN: But it was a totally different incident and -- or event, shall we say?

PARKS: Yes.

KAGAN: And then your daughter is finishing up her sophomore year, I believe, is that right?

PARKS: That's correct.

KAGAN: And then coming up into next year, there might be different types of activities, initiations going from junior year into senior year. I imagine you're going to be monitoring any activities that she plans to take place in.

PARKS: Well, that's something else I brought to the attention of the board is I asked them to consider bringing the event back on school grounds so that we do have control of the situation and not let the students have one up on this.

KAGAN: And, quickly, did you get anything back on that?

PARKS: No, they are not allowed -- they're not allowed to comment, unfortunately.

KAGAN: It sounds like the information is...

PARKS: I can only go in and make...

KAGAN: It sounds like the information is a little bit...

PARKS: Yes, information gathering.

KAGAN: Yes, a little tight right now.

Sorry for stepping on you there with our little satellite delay. We have that situation.

Kim Parks joining us from Illinois.

Thank you for that and appreciate your interest in the story.

PARKS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Severe Punishment>


Aired May 12, 2003 - 08:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Illinois, that violent hazing incident at a Chicago area high school was discussed last night at a school board meeting. Several seniors from Glenbrook North High could face severe punishment for their roles in the incident, which sent five junior girls to the hospital.
Kim Parks has a daughter at the school and she also turns out as a graduate of Glenbrook North High.

And she joins us this morning.

Kim, good morning.

KIM PARKS, MOTHER OF GLENBROOK NORTH HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE: Hi. Good morning.

KAGAN: So I understand at the school board meeting the board decided they're going to hire a team of independent investigators to review the cases and then get back to them.

Are you satisfied with what came out of the board meeting last night?

PARKS: Absolutely. The president of the board gave a very strong statement stating their disgust and appallment of the girls' behavior and I feel that they will act accordingly.

KAGAN: So you're just going to have to wait a little bit to find out exactly what will happen to the girls?

PARKS: Yes. That's one area I'm a little confused about, because from Thursday's press conference I understood the principal to state that they cannot release that information, based on each individual, due to confidentiality. So I'm not quite sure how they're going to be able to let us know that action has taken, you know, disciplinary actions have been taken against the girls.

KAGAN: Right, because of privacy issues since we're probably dealing with a number of juveniles here. Also, I understand that principal has come out and said that in a lot of ways the school's hands are tied. This was not a school sanctioned event and this was off campus. So really how much can school officials and school board officials do?

PARKS: Well, yesterday I spent the day or afternoon poring over the students' rights and responsibilities and I do believe there's two sections that allow the board to step in and where they do have authority to expel these girls. One of them is, it falls under the weapons possession. And it basically states that any activity or event which bears a reasonable relationship to school -- and I think we all agree that this has a reasonable relationship to Glenbrook North High School. And they describe a weapon as any object if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm. We know they brought all those objects to cause bodily harm to the junior girls so.

KAGAN: I want to call on your experience at Glenbrook North to put some things in kind of historical perspective here. Back in the day, as we like to say, when you went there, was this powder-puff game, was it still on campus or had it moved off campus?

PARKS: No, it was still on campus. So it was, we had officials on the field. It was flag football. I mean I'm not sure why they canceled it. I disagree that it was due to roughness. But maybe there's something there that I don't know about.

KAGAN: But it was a totally different incident and -- or event, shall we say?

PARKS: Yes.

KAGAN: And then your daughter is finishing up her sophomore year, I believe, is that right?

PARKS: That's correct.

KAGAN: And then coming up into next year, there might be different types of activities, initiations going from junior year into senior year. I imagine you're going to be monitoring any activities that she plans to take place in.

PARKS: Well, that's something else I brought to the attention of the board is I asked them to consider bringing the event back on school grounds so that we do have control of the situation and not let the students have one up on this.

KAGAN: And, quickly, did you get anything back on that?

PARKS: No, they are not allowed -- they're not allowed to comment, unfortunately.

KAGAN: It sounds like the information is...

PARKS: I can only go in and make...

KAGAN: It sounds like the information is a little bit...

PARKS: Yes, information gathering.

KAGAN: Yes, a little tight right now.

Sorry for stepping on you there with our little satellite delay. We have that situation.

Kim Parks joining us from Illinois.

Thank you for that and appreciate your interest in the story.

PARKS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Severe Punishment>