Ex-State Teacher of the Year Pleads Not Guilty in Sexual Assault Case From 1970s

An Illinois Teacher of the Year in the 1990s who taught at Rolling Meadows High School pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse charges in connection with allegations from a visiting student at a New Hampshire prep school he worked at in the 1970s, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Arthur Peekel, 74, of Palatine, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor sexual assault after he turned himself in to authorities May 13. The charges stem from a 1973 incident when Peekel was an admissions officer at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH.

The charges against Peekel came after a Boston Globe investigative report into sexual abuse at the academy. In the report, a former prospective student who was 14 at the time accused Peekel of fondling him during an overnight on-campus visit in the fall of 1973.

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

Peekel denied the allegations at the time, and 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.

Peekel was a social studies teacher at Rolling Meadows High School from 1986 until he retired in 2004. He was named Teacher of Year by the Illinois Board of Education for the 1991-92 school year.

Rolling Meadows officials told the Tribune they weren't aware of the prospective student's accusations from the '70s and that no reports of abuse had been leveled against Peekel during his 18 years at the high school.

More via the Chicago Tribune

PHOTO: Arthur Peekel (Exeter Police Department)

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