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Except for an art teacher over in Evergreen Park. Bruce Lupori, a sixth-grade teacher over at Southwest Elementary School allegedly participated in a "joke gone bad" whereby he apparently put a plastic bag (with a hole cut in it) over a student's head. The incident happened in February, but the school only heard about it when kids told administrators about it on March 23. That seems a little odd. Did they not tell because it was unworthy of mention? Or did they not tell because they were all totally freaked and afraid to say how wigged they were?
OK. Before we get too crazy here, we'll say this. Who knows what really happened? It might have been something sort of benign. While the story says that "school officials sent letters home with students late last week, detailing the incident that took place about six weeks ago," there is no mention of any details of any incident in the story. So we have no clue what we're talking about here. Was it a joke about suffocation? Was it a joke about art? Was it a joke that was meant to degrade? Was it a joke the student willingly participated in? We don't know.
However, we do feel compelled to ask the question of the ages: What the hell were you thinking? We have caught ourselves at parks wanting to take a picture of something and thinking, "Oh crap. What if one of these parents thinks Chicagoist is trying to take a picture of their kid?" So what if we were trying to take a picture of their kid? Maybe their kid is cute. Maybe their kid is on an interesting sculpture. It doesn't mean we're a pedophile. But because society has disintegrated from the wild fluctuation point of "Girls Gone Wild" videos seeming passe to the "To Catch A Predator" series becoming Dateline's cash cow, we are very careful about being the neutral adult in any given situation.
Superintendent Craig Fiegel said that he doesn't believe the students are in any danger and that Lupori has taught in the district for 22 years. "I believe he knows that it isn't something you do. It was an unfortunate thing to do," Fiegel said. "You have to weigh in some of the intent and look at the situation. We all have lapses in judgment, make mistakes."
Lt. Greg LeCompte of the Evergreen Park police said, "Parents don't want to pursue it, so no charges will be filed." Although the police have finished their investigation, Lupori is on paid leave until the school district is finished with their investigation, and at that time, the school board may choose to give him the smackdown.
What sucks is that if it was truly harmless, the guy could lose his job over an environment that has gotten crazyparanoidpoliticallycorrect in an effort to be ubersafe. The article mentions that "the student and her family don't believe Bruce Lupori had any ill intentions." The superintendent does back Lupori up by saying, "He has done some good projects with the kids and can be very creative in the classroom." Sure. But maybe he should leave the joke-telling to the forensics coach.
"bag head" via theslowcollapse.
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This guy was my jr. high art teacher, and I have really fond memories of his class. He was a good guy & I don't remember him ever loosing it, even with some of the assholes in class. If the parents don't want to pursue it, and the police don't want to file criminal charges, it obviously wasn't that big of a deal. I'd hate to see him loose his job because of an error of judgment.
Mr. Lupori was my teacher as well. He was a fun teacher - always making us laugh, doing fun projects, drawing with us. He was a great teacher and that's not a compliment I throw around too often. I am a teacher as well and I've made some poor judgments and I would like to think that people would listen to the whole story before condemning him.
My older kids liked him as an art teacher, but lately I think he's gotten a bit burned out with teaching. He seems to bully the kids a lot and my youngest hates art class because of him. I know talk between parents over the last several months has been pretty negative, regarding his attitude toward the kids.
My daughter had Mr.Lupori and would come home crying everytime she had art class.I talked with other parents and they experienced the same thing with their kids. No one wants to speak up for fear about the treatment their kids would receive afterwards by the other teachers .I went to the principal with my concerns but they did nothing. Someone should find out why this teacher was transferred from Southeast School to Southwest School, my niece was at Southeast and she had problems with Lupori there too. And rumors have it that Lupori threw a chair out the window at that school. I recently heard that around the time this incident happened Lupori hated an art project a student did, tore it up and threw across the room.
I had Mr. Lupori when I went to Southeast and I always thought he was a huge jerk. He did actually ripped one of my art projects because it was "sloppy." I was completely humiliated and in tears in front of the entire class. I can totally see him doing something like this. I think at that time he was working at Southeast and Southwest and he was also my art teacher when I went to Central.