On Feb. 22, a North guidance counselor was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse with a 16-year-old female student from the school, according to the Daily Herald.
John Carbonaro, 33, of Warrenville successfully passed the required background checks conducted on all District 203 employees when entering the job in 2006, according to Superintendent Mark Mitrovich in a statement on the district website.
“Pending a full investigation by law enforcement into the alleged misconduct, Mr. Carbonaro is suspended with pay and has been removed from all duties and responsibilities,” Mitrovich said. “We recognize the very serious nature of the charges and are cooperating fully with the investigation.”
According to the statement, a concerned parent contacted North principal Kevin Pobst about a “rumored inappropriate relationship between an employee and a student” on the evening of Feb. 17.
Carbonaro allegedly carried on a six-month relationship with the student. The charges against Carbonaro carry a maximum prison term of seven years, or are punishable by probation, prosecutors said to the Daily Herald.
However, Carbonaro’s attorney, Nick Lagattuta said his client will plead not guilty to the charges.
“This is one of these cases where a young student has a crush on him and all the sudden now the guy’s in trouble,” Lagatutta said to the TribLocal.
The parents of the student requested Carbonaro to serve as her guidance counselor due to “a positive experience” they shared while he coached her softball team, Lagatutta said. The student eventually developed a crush on Carbonaro.
Aside from coaching girls softball at North, Carbonaro also coached girls golf and was a part-time range officer for the Naperville Park District. He is married with two children.
North junior Anit Ghandi said he was “slightly saddened” by the news.
“[Carbonaro] was head counselor…he’s trained to be the kind of person to help kids with these situations, not create the situations,” Ghandi said.
Ghandi said he didn’t take the rumors seriously at first, until the media reports surfaced on Facebook on the evening of Feb. 22. He said it was interesting that “the entire thing just died as quickly as it started.”
On Feb. 23, Pobst reiterated Mitrovich’s statement to North students over the P.A. system, said Ghandi.
“[Probst] said that if we needed to talk, we should go to our counselors, ironically enough, and that the district [was] cooperating,” he said. “He was protecting the school’s image, which I would hope he would do.”
Carbonaro is not the only staff member to be accused on such charges in the Naperville area. In October, a Metea Valley physics teacher, Robert Smith, 27, confessed to carrying on a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student at the school, according to the Daily Herald. More recently, Nequa Valley teaching assistant Deborah Cox, 58, was accused of an inappropriate relationship with a now-graduated student on March 3, wrapping up a six-month long investigation, according to the Naperville Patch online police blotter. Both staff members successfully passed all required background checks when beginning work at the schools, according to District 204 officials.
Carbonaro is scheduled to appear for his first court hearing on March 23.