Stranger Enters Oak Lawn Community High School: Cops

Quick acting administrators were able to remove a suspicious stranger found wandering through Oak Lawn Community High School, reports said.

A secretary told police that she was walking into the school building at 9400 S. Southwest Highway around 6:58 a.m. Nov. 2, when she saw man wearing a gray hoodie leaning against the handrail near the entrance smoking a cigarette.

Seeing that the man, later identified as Jacek Myczka, 38, of Des Plaines, was not of high school age nor recognizing him as part of the school community, she told him he could not smoke on school grounds and ordered him to leave.

Myczka said nothing and glared at the secretary, police said. She entered the building and alerted the assistant principal.

The assistant principal called the Oak Lawn police officer assigned to the high school as the school resource officer. He also radioed the dean’s assistant to help locate the stranger.

At 6:59 a.m., the dean’s assistant found Myczka inside the school near the entry doors to the pool hallway. He opened the doors and escorted Myczka out of the building. The assistant dean said the man did not say anything and thought Myczka might be hearing impaired, police said.

The two school administrators waited with Myczka outside the building until police arrived. Officers said that Myczka complied with orders to put up his hands, indicating he could hear their directions.

According to the report, Myczka refused to speak with the school resource officer. He also refused to walk into the Oak Lawn police station and made officers carry him inside.

Later, Myczka began talking to police. He admitted to going inside the school because he had to urinate, police said.

The school resource officer reviewed surveillance video showing Myczka walking through the staff parking lot from 95th Street around 6:50 a.m. He entered the school at 6:59 p.m., passing a student who was sitting at a table in the Spartan lobby, reports said.

Myczka walked down the pool hallway and was escorted outside school building at 7:01 a.m., according to the security video.

Dr. Michael Riordan, Dist. 229 superintendent and principal, said that doors at certain points in the building are unlocked for arriving students and staff before school starts in the morning.

“He apparently found one of the doors that was opened up and followed our secretary into the building,” Riordan said. “The reports we received was that he may have been homeless.”

All of the doors are secured during the day except for the visitor entrance, Riordan said.

Myczka was charged with criminal trespassing to state supported land. The school resource officer warned him that he cannot return to Oak Lawn Community High School or he will face more charges.

The Des Plaines man’s next court hearing is Nov. 18 in Bridgeview.