Friday, November 20, 2009 East Central Illinois

Judge finds former schools chief Amberg guilty in White case

By: Mary Schenk

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Monday, February 23, 2009

URBANA – Former Urbana school district superintendent Gene Amberg admitted in criminal court that he mishandled reports of abuse by a former grade school teacher against his students.

In a stipulated bench trial Monday, Judge John Kennedy found there was evidence to prove Amberg, 58, of Urbana, guilty of failure to report, to the Department of Children and Family Services, suspicions that Jon White engaged in conduct with female students designed to satisfy the former Thomas Paine Elementary School teacher's sexual urges.

Like his colleague Carmelita Thomas, 58, of Champaign, Amberg will not suffer a conviction if he successfully completes the terms of the court supervision he was granted under the terms of an agreement negotiated by State's Attorney Julia Rietz and his attorney, Tony Novak of Urbana.

He was sentenced to 18 months of court supervision, fined $2,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of public service.

According to the facts that Rietz and Novak agreed the judge could consider, Amberg was alerted on Nov. 2, 2006, by the parent of a second-grade girl that White had blindfolded her for a so-called "taste-testing" game that involved her licking substances off a banana. The mother also told Amberg that  White put warm toppings on her daughter’s belly.

Amberg then contacted Principal Janice Bradley, who arranged to meet the next day with the parents. After talking to them and White, Bradley sent the parents and Amberg a letter saying she was satisfied that White was using "a legitimate teaching technique."

Rietz said the parents, still dissatisfied with Bradley's follow-up, met with Amberg again on Nov. 6, 2006, and had their child transferred to another school. Amberg told the parents he would have Thomas do an investigation.

Rietz said Thomas wrote a report in which she said the parents believed criminal activity might be going on and that's why the district did further investigation of White.

Neither Amberg nor other school officials reported any of the concerns to the DCFS.

Amberg currently teaches at the University of Illinois in the College of Education. He retired from the Urbana school district at the end of the 2006-2007 school year.

Thomas pleaded guilty in December and was sentenced to 18 months of court supervision, fined $2,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

Bradley, 56, of Champaign, who is now retired, has a court appearance later this week. She is charged with two counts of failure to report.

Thomas, who is also retired, was the human resources director for the school district when parents came forward in the fall of 2006 with complaints that White, 28, was playing "taste-testing" games with their second-grade daughters. White was arrested at school Jan. 31, 2007. He is serving a 60-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in February 2008 in Champaign and McLean counties to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

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