IL: Suit settled in teen suicide that led to law change
The case of a suburban Chicago teenager, Corey Walgren, who killed himself in 2017, three hours after a dean and in-school police officer at Naperville High School told the honor-roll student he might face child pornography charges and being placed on the sex offender registry after he was alleged to have made a video of himself having sex with a classmate.
The case was settled for $125,000, but more importantly it prompted a change in Illinois law that requires an adult (such as the child’s parent) be present when a child is being questioned.
The case also shows how devastating the stigma of being registered is.
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$125K for a young life. Hardly equitable. People. It is time we got seriously aggressive in our efforts to kill
this bullshit. Anything it takes!
Speaking of the stigma, I was watching a made up crime drama on tv today and a little girl had been kidnapped and the first thing the tv show detective said to the patrols officers was ” We need to have units go by all the local registered sex offenders houses and see if they have the girl”. Made me wonder if they were going to get warrants for everyone on the local list. Even though it was a made up show and not a real story, it was probably based on a real event and now every ex offender but who are on the registry are the number 1 suspects for every related crime
I’m not surprised the law allowed state officials to question a minor without a parent nor legal guardian present. When I was a guest of the state, I did paralegal work for my fellow inmates and the stuff the state got away with was mindblowing. That’s why I knew I had to get out of there as soon as I could.
How many more deaths from vigilantism and suicide is it going to take before courts finally take off the blinders and pull out the earplugs and fully acknowledge the cruelty of the registry and end it?
Lots of good that does Corey who felt compelled by the threats of these so-called adults that he felt the best option was to end his life!
Imagine that – can you? He would rather DIE than live as a hated second class citizen in his own country!
They killed him. Simple as that. Some new law is meaningless and does nothing for this kid.
The sex offender registry has caused more children’s deaths than it has prevented – BY FAR!
Worthless parasitic politicians such as the hypocrite Senator Lauren Book have had a hand in this indirectly or not – how does it feel Senator Lauren Book to know this? Do you care at all? Clearly you do NOT by your actions.
This is so sad in so many ways. I was that kid once. I considered suicide many times over the years. I hate that it took this young mans death to make this common sense change to a policy. I been a registered citizen for over 20 years. I’ve learn how to stand firm and fight back. I wish this could would have had the chance to defend himself. I ha e a young son and I’m already teaching him to avoid the registy, criminal pit falls. I’ve even thought my children how to talk to police and what to say if ever questioned.