Ex-Rolling Meadows Teacher From Palatine Charged in '70s Sex Assault Case

By TONY SCHINELLA | Patch Staff

EXETER, NH—A Palatine man who was a former Rolling Meadows High School teacher for almost 20 years was arrested Friday in connection with allegations that he sexually assaulted a former student at a New Hampshire prep school he worked at in the 1970s, according to police in Exeter, N.H.

Arthur Peekel, 74, turned himself in to authorities Friday, May 13, and he was charged with two counts of sexual assault. He was released on $25,000 bail, and his next court date is July 25.

Peekel was part of an investigation into sexual assault and improper behavior at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., after a student who attended the prep school in the 1970s recently reported allegations of abuse to police. At the time, Peekel worked as the school's admissions officer.

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Details of the former student's accusations came to light in a Boston Globe investigative report. The student, now a college professor in Greensboro, N.C., told the paper that Peekel allegedly fondled him during an overnight on-campus visit in the fall of 1973 when he was only a 14-year-old prospective student.

Peekel denied the allegations when school officials confronted him at the time, the Globe reported. He took a leave of absence that same year before resigning from Exeter in 1974 to care for his sick mother in Illinois, the report added.

RELATED: Check Out the Full Boston Globe Investigative Report about Phillips Exeter Academy

From 1986 until he retired in 2004, Peekel was a social studies teacher at Rolling Meadows High School. He was named Teacher of Year by the Illinois Board of Education for the 1991-92 school year. In a 1991 Chicago Tribune interview after winning the award, Peekel described his philosophy on student discipline:

"Everyone is looking for someone to help them become the person they are capable of being," he said. "For teenagers, it's an ordeal, like running the gantlet. They are starving for understanding and acceptance for who they are.

"We have to convey to kids that, 'Hey, I don't like what you did, but that doesn't mean I think you're a bad person. I like you and want you in my class, but that behavior has got to stay outside the door.' "

Entries in Peekel's blog, which was started in 2005, discuss his various overseas trips, including visits to Costa Rica, Panama and New Zealand. The blog's final entry is 2013, and it talks about a church mission trip to a Russian orphanage.

Normally, the statute of limitations would have expired in a case of this length, but those restrictions were suspended when Peekel moved out of state after the alleged incidents occurred, police said.

"We allege that the suspect violated the trust placed in him by a prospective student by committing multiple acts of sexual assault," Exeter Police Chief William Shupe said in a statement. "We salute the bravery of the victim in coming forward to report this incident to us, allowing us to bring this case forward."

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PHOTO: Arthur Peekel (Exeter Police Department)