Teens Targeted By Group Of Boys: Western Springs Cops

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — A mother wanted to read a police report about an incident in which her teenage children alleged they were harassed by a group of teens in Western Springs. So she filed a public records request with the village. She was denied.

About two weeks later, Western Springs Patch filed a request for the same records and got them.

In its denial to the woman, Western Springs stated it was barred from disclosing the report under the state Juvenile Court Act. In Patch's version of the police report, the names of juveniles were blacked out, which is a customary police practice.

In an email to Patch, Shaun O'Connor, the employee who handles public records requests for the Western Springs Police Department, said the mother's request was originally denied because the Juvenile Court Act was wrongly interpreted. Once the village reviewed the matter again, he said, it re-sent the documents to the mother.

Patch sought the records after the woman said her 15-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl were attacked by 10 "clean-cut" boys about their age near Lyons Township High School's South Campus.

Late the afternoon of May 30, the mother went to the police station to report that an incident involving her children happened near the baseball fields on the southwest side of the school's campus, according to police records. Her children were riding their bikes past a group of five to 10 boys around the ages of 13 to 15 when the boys tried to block their way and ask them questions about their age, police said.

Her children then rode past them and stopped to eat at Subway in the Garden Market Shopping Center on Gilbert Avenue. They took the same path to get home and ran into the group of boys, who again blocked their way. The boys attempted to grab their tires and sit in one of the baskets on the bikes, police said. The siblings told the boys to get away from them, which they did, according to the report.

The brother and sister told a woman walking with her child in a stroller that they felt unsafe, and she stayed with them until help arrived.

According to the report, the victims could not identify the people involved.

O'Connor, the police department employee, said the case is listed as open.

In an email to Patch, the mother said four of the boys tried to restrain her daughter, who has special needs. One boy straddled the tire of her bike and held her handle bars, two others held her arms on both sides of the bike and blocked the pedals, and another sat in the rack on the back of the bike, the mother said.

The family is from neighboring Indian Head Park.