An Oak Park and River Forest High School teacher who was the subject of an investigation into allegedly touching a female student inappropriately has been terminated by the District 200 Board of Education.
At its meeting July 10, the board voted 6-0, with one abstention, to terminate tenured teacher Aaron Podolner, an OPRF graduate who was prominently featured in America to Me, the 2018 documentary series about OPRF.
Podolner received notice, Nov. 22, that he was being placed on paid administrative leave after a female student reported to school officials that he’d touched her inappropriately, according to documents obtained then by Wednesday Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The district reported the incident to the Department of Children and Family Services and launched a formal Title IX investigation, according to the documents.
“I’m disappointed because both DCFS and the Oak Park police investigated the allegation and determined it was unfounded,” Podolner said via an email statement Friday. “I will be appealing the board’s decision,”
When pressed further, Podolner referred a reporter to his attorney, Steve Glink, who specializes in school law, teacher rights and DCFS defense.
Glink said the appeal will go through the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), where an arbitrator will be appointed to review the facts of the case.
“This is like a full-blown trial” Glink said. “The hearing officer will write a report. That report will provide findings of fact and will make conclusions of law.”
From there, the OPRF school board will receive that report and determine if it would like to change its collective mind on the matter.
“Sometimes it influences and sometimes it doesn’t,” Glink said. “They can look at that and the board can do what they want.”
The termination decision came after an hours-long, closed-session board discussion, July 10, that delayed the beginning of the open portion of its meeting from 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. The board proffered virtually no discussion on the matter prior to voting. Podolner spoke on his behalf during the closed session, Glink said.
New board member Josh Gertz abstained from voting.
“We always want to make sure to take these types of reports very seriously so impacted individuals feel comfortable coming forward,” Gertz said in an email Friday. “Due to a technical issue, the administration was informed that Mr. Podolner may not have received some communications about the Title IX determination with as much advance notice as possible. We were also informed that Mr. Podolner recently retained new counsel to represent him. While Mr. Podolner presented to the board and indicated he was prepared to do so, I felt it was best to continue the matter for a future meeting.
“Additionally, given the severity of the matter and the fact that DCFS and OPPD did not decide to take action after investigating, I did not believe I was able to make a decision last night with which I would have felt confident,” he said. “I would have personally welcomed additional time to investigate further and contemplate. At the end of the day, I stand by the board’s decision on the matter.”
Supt. Greg Johnson offered no comment, other than saying such decisions are very difficult.
“We’re just waiting to hear what will come out of any opinion that would be filed,” board President Audrey Williams-Lee said. “We don’t know if it will come back; it depends on the hearing officer for ISBE.”
As for a timeline when that might happen, Williams-Lee couldn’t say, but she agreed with Johnson that the situation is “difficult. It’s not something that’s taken lightly.”
She also added that the district’s investigation was conducted under Faith’s Law, which uses as its basis Illinois school codes and statutes, which is different from the DCFS model.
“When you look at the definition under Faith’s Law, how sexual misconduct is defined, Faith’s Law is a bit more broad than DCFS,” she said.
Glink said he wasn’t surprised at the board’s decision to terminate Podolner.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” he said. “They are a political entity, so they have a high school student who is claiming Aaron sexually touched her. What do you think is going to happen if they don’t fire him? There were a lot of rumors going around about him being a ‘weirdo,’ and I think this provided a perfect opportunity to get rid of a problem.”
Glink noted that Podolner has indicated he would like to return to OPRF if given the opportunity.
“He’s tenured there and not quite in the retirement chain right now, and I think there’s a moral victory there,” he said.