Exonerated Swim Coach Still Sits in CPS Jail
By Jim Vail
The Lane Tech girls swim coach who was accused of
inappropriate relations with one of his swimmers was found not guilty but has
still not been allowed to return to his teaching job.
Paul Rummelhoff, a 30-year-old math teacher at Lane
Technical High School on the north side, is an award-winning swim coach who
helped his girls’ teams win numerous conference titles. In 2011, he was named
the male coach of the year in the Chicago Public Schools.
But suddenly his world of numbers and swim meets came to an
abrupt halt when a student from Lane accused him of having sex with a female
student and member of the girls swim team.
On January 10th of this year, he was called down to the
principal’s office and informed that he had to pack his items. He was then
informed later that weekend, by the principal, to report to the network office.
“The security came and said the principal wanted to see me.
The principal said the law department was on their way to see me, but he didn’t
know why. The law department never showed, and I was sent home after waiting
for 3 hours,” Rummelhoff said in an
interview with Second City Teachers.
He said he had no idea why he was supposed to leave the high
school he had been teaching at for the past 7 years. He said his principal,
Christopher Dignam, told him that he did not
know why, and CPS did not inform either men why Rummelhoff was being removed
from the school.
“I didn’t receive any letter, and I did not know why I was
there (network office),” Rummelhoff told Second City Teachers. “I then received
a certified letter stating I was to have no contact with any students or
parents. We’re investigating you.”
He said he asked CPS investigator
and retired cop, Hal Ardel, what he was being accused of, and Ardel answered
that he should already know that the Department of Family and Children Services
or DCFS said they are investigating allegations against him.
Rummelhoff then told the
investigator that he first needed union representation before he would answer
any questions.
Then he got a call the night before
his interview with Hal Ardel from CBS news reporter Derrick Blakely, who wanted
to ask him questions about the sexual allegations because they were planning to
report it on the news that evening.
At this point, the question that
Rummelhoff had was how did a TV news reporter suddenly get internal information
that CPS was investigating allegations that took the Lane Tech educator
completely by surprise.
“The media will twist things,” said
Rummelhoff, who added that he decided to not call back the reporter. “I’m not a
fan of the media. It’s all about ratings.”
And what could be better than a nice
juicy report about a young Lane Tech swim coach being accused of having sex
with his female star swimmers.
“Chicago Public Schools officials
and state investigators are looking into allegations that a Lane Tech teacher
and coach had a sexual relationship with a female student,” CBS TV reported on
Jan.23 of this year.
The report was alarming, being one
of only three news story of the night. CPS has uncovered a sexual predator!
Except it wasn’t true.
DCFS
determined that all the allegations against Rummelhoff were unfounded.
“You were
previously notified that the Department of Family and Children Services was
investigating a report of suspected child abuse or neglect in fulfillment of
its duties under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
“After a
thorough evaluation, DCFS has determined the report “to be unfounded.” This means
that no credible evidence of child abuse or neglect was found during this
investigation and that your name will not be listed as a perpetrator of child
abuse or neglect on the State Central Register. This does not necessarily mean
that an incident did not occur. An incident may have occurred but the evidence
did not rise to the level required to indicate for abuse or neglect as dictated
by state law and DCFS Administrative Rule.”
And yet Rummelhoff, a beloved
teacher at Lane Tech, who was also the sophomore assistant baseball coach and
comes from a family of eight children, six of whom graduated from Lane Tech, is
still sitting in a white-walled 12 by 15 room with no windows – the equivalent
of CPS jail.
He, along with a few other teachers being
investigated for whatever accusations, is collecting his regular pay and
benefits until CPS concludes its investigation, Rummelhoff said.
His nightmare scenario is a textbook
case of how simple, childish accusations with no merit can destroy an innocent
teacher’s life.
They say social media today is
dangerous terrain that many of us are treading, unsuspecting of what lurks in a
world of instant communication, with rumors portrayed as facts in cyberspace.
It is probable that the CBS reporter
went to Facebook and Twitter to read up on all the buzz around Rummelhoff from
the students who know him.
CBS Blakely told Second City
Teachers that the allegations were circulating everywhere.
“It was not a secret he was out of
the school,” Blakely said by phone. “There were rumors all over the school why
he wasn’t at school. It was out there.”
Interestingly enough, while many
students were wondering in cyberspace whatever happened to their teacher,
Rummelhoff said he has no facebook or twitter account because he doesn’t think
his students should know about his personal life.
And yet it is quite possible that
facebook and twitter helped turn his world upside down.
While Rummelhoff will not speculate
about which student it was who falsely accused him of having sex with a student,
in the swirling world of teenage girls and a young and good-looking teacher,
jealousies and feelings of hurt could easily break into the realm of
accusations and handcuffs.
“Girls were questioned from Lane and
other schools,” Rummelhoff said. “Math is all about patterns. These girls were
not commenting [on the social media sites], probably because they were talking
to investigators. I have no idea what was said. I don’t think their intention
was to burn me.”
Then why would they do it?
When we first sat down to do the
interview, Rummelhoff talked about how he had to go to battle with students who
were not accustomed to being assigned a lot of homework and demanding tests. He
challenged his students, and that was what made him a top teacher and coach in
the city. It may have also made him vulnerable to vindictive pupils who realize
the power they have to fight back with spurious accusations.
Straight out of a John Burge
playbook when the rogue city cop would beat confessions out of people, during
the investigation, the retired cop/CPS investigator grilled Rummelhoff and
tried every trick in the book to make him admit he was a sexual predator.
“Hal would say you did (something)
in your house, and I said that’s not possible because my wife is a stay at home
mom,” Rummelhoff said. “Then he said, well, it says here you did it in the back
office storage room of the pool. I said that’s impossible because the room was
filled with boxes. He got frustrated throwing things at me to see what sticks.
He would say you did it in random parking lots. He did not have any specific
times, dates or locations, just generalizations. And
I would just look at him and not answer. Then he would get pretty gross
describing all the sexual acts. And he would repeat this about six or seven
times. He’s trying to break you.”
Rummelhoff said he had experience
taking a deposition before and was well-aware of the tactics of asking
speculative questions so that they can find answers that contradict earlier
statements to destroy the accused’s credibility.
“‘So why do you think these kids
would do this to you?’ I didn’t answer. It’s speculative. ‘Why would they want
to get you?’ Silence.” Rummelhoff said.
Rummelhoff said the old cop had
pictures of the building where he lives, phone numbers, phone records, and kept
asking the speculative questions. And Rummelhoff would keep his silence (at
least he didn’t get banged over the head with a telephone book or get strangled
by a phone cord a la Burge and associates).
Interestingly enough, Hal later
admitted he didn’t have the phone records, but would have them soon, Rummelhoff
said.
So why would CPS not put him back in
the classroom now that the investigation is complete and all the accusations
were utterly unsubstantiated?
The fact that his case was put on
the CBS news hour perhaps made him guilty in many minds, and CPS has egg on its
face (even though the other TV networks had sense enough to not run the story).
Blakely from CBS said he has been
contacting CPS to learn about their findings and that the board of education
must have a valid reason to dismiss him.
Rummelhoff surmises that CPS would
like to break him, so he would then quit CPS and get on with his life. But in a
testament to the winning coach and top notch math teacher beloved by many of
the Lane Tech students, Rummelhoff ain’t backing down and intends to hang on.
And so he continues to wait for CPS
to admit the truth that it screwed up and return him to the classroom where he
belongs.
Thanks. It's grim.
ReplyDelete-Jan Peczkis
Substitute CPS teacher just recently reinstated and removed from Do Not Hire List
That family deserves nothing more than to be out on the street after this. Can't even raise a teenage girl properly, great teacher loses his job and not one repurcussion for it. I hope the surrounding community does what is right if the legal system won't.
ReplyDelete