Lockport — The principal of Sts. Dennis and Joseph Catholic Academy, the recently combined Catholic elementary school in Lockport, called police to the St. Joseph, or North, campus Tuesday to have multiple teachers escorted off the premises.

Lockport Deputy Chief of Police Ron Huff said: “The school administrators requested the presence of our officers as they informed teachers that their contracts were not being renewed. Our officers simply stood by as the teachers gathered their belongings and left the building after being informed by the school administration that they could no longer remain on the school grounds.”

Huff said “all of the staff members willingly left the building without intervention by our officers.”

He noted that police were called to the building twice. Two officers were sent to the building at 7:15 a.m. before school started, and three were sent about 2:50 p.m.

Meanwhile, Principal Thomas Newton sent out a statement to school families Tuesday afternoon that said police were called to the campus because of a “safety violation.”

The statement read: “Unapproved individuals were granted access into the school building without prior notice or clearance. No staff or students were harmed; however, besides having access to students, staff and classrooms, the unapproved individuals participated in P.E. classes, which created safety and liability issues for us.”

The statement further said: “People involved in allowing the unauthorized access to our premises and students were directed to leave the property this morning. Unfortunately, the situation escalated, thus necessitating the involvement of local police.”

This conflicts with statements from the police and teachers at the school, including one of the teachers who was escorted off premises Tuesday morning, Chris Lareau, who taught both junior high math and gym.

Huff said police were called at 6:30 a.m. and were asked to “stand by” while a staff member was removed. He said police were further requested not to park their vehicle in front of the building so as not to arouse suspicion from staff or students as they arrived.

Huff noted that the police were never informed about a security violation at the school.

The “unauthorized visitors” in question were reportedly three underage siblings and former students of St. Dennis, now called the South campus, who had contacted Lareau a few days before and asked to visit the campus Monday to say hello to their former teachers and the current students.

This was confirmed by the students’ father.

“I let the former students in,” Lareau told The Herald-News. “I did not ask permission, and I probably should have signed them in. I admit that was a mistake, but this is something that has been done by other teachers multiple times throughout the year without incident. There was a similar situation at the other building the same day, which was not a problem. It’s never something we needed permission for before.”

“There was a tradition at St. Dennis that during the last week of the year certain alumni would be invited back to help the teachers and participate in end-of-the-year parties,” said the students’ father, who asked that his children not be identified. “It was not uncommon. My kids were in the building for about 45 minutes and had a great time seeing everyone. Unfortunately, the administration made it sound like the school was under siege and used this as an excuse to escalate things and remove the teacher.”

“If it had really been a problem, [the principal] could have called her that night and told her not to come back,” the father said. “Instead, he made a scene and involved the police.”

“That school statement is false,” Lareau said. “It’s defamation. [The kids] visited four teachers while they were there. There was no danger, and if standing next to me in the gymnasium while I ran a gym class is ‘participating,’ that feels like a stretch.”

Newton did not returns calls from The Herald-News seeking comment on the situation. The school office when asked did not provide an official policy about visitors.

Teachers escorted out

Lareau said police were waiting at her classroom in the morning with Newton before she was asked to leave – something that was confirmed by Huff.

“The secretary came and found me in another teacher’s classroom and said Tom [Newton] was looking for me in my room,” Lareau said. “When I got there, he was waiting for me with two police officers. I was told to leave, that I had ‘endangered the lives of students,’ and that I was not ‘for any reason to be in the building.’”

Lareau said she was handed a list of things she needed to do and said she needed a few minutes to turn in her school-issued items and collect her personal belongings. She said she was told she would not be allowed to take her things, and they would be returned to her between Friday and June 12.

Lareau’s car was being repaired after an accident, and she had received a ride to school with a co-worker that morning, but she was not allowed to call for a ride before leaving the building, she said. Police walked Lareau out of the building and instructed her to wait across the street off school property for a ride, she said, adding that a school parent offered her a ride home.

The school had tried to keep students isolated from the incident by sending them to the gym as they arrived in the morning, reportedly telling them that the classrooms were too hot and they were going to have a school prayer before classes, said fourth-grade teacher Pam Pellicane, who later was escorted from the building. She also said several students witnessed Lareau being led out despite these efforts.

School continued mostly as usual Tuesday, with a substitute assigned to Lareau’s classes until police once again returned to the building after school, again under the request to prevent any disturbances as some teachers were told their contracts were not being renewed.

Pellicane’s husband, Mike – who previously taught at St. Dennis and has volunteered in numerous roles at the parish and school – had come to the building to help Pellicane remove personal things from her classroom.

Pellicane, who has been undergoing cancer treatments for the past year, said: “He was helping me lift things. I had gone to see someone, and when I got to my room, my boss was there with two police officers.”

“[Newton] said, ‘I don’t want him in here, he needs to leave,’ to the officers about Mike,” Pellicane said. “I told him I needed him there to help get my things out, and he said, ‘I don’t care, he shouldn’t be here.’ My husband said, ‘I need to go,’ and left the building. I tried to question what was happening, and [Newton] said I had to leave. He looked at the officers and said, ‘I want her out too,’ and that I was trespassing.”

Pellicane said the police told her to get her keys and personal belongings even though she was supposed to be teaching through the end of the year.

“And they walked me out. I was hysterical. I hadn’t done anything wrong,” Pellicane said.

Joel Young, the husband of another teacher, told The Herald-News that he had been called by Mike Pellicane informing him that he had seen Young’s wife in her room, distraught and not being allowed to answer her phone or make any calls.

Young said he tried to get in touch with his wife, but she was not answering her phone.

Young’s wife asked not to be directly identified or quoted for this story but gave permission for her husband’s account to be shared.

“In the afternoon, my wife had texted me and said, ‘There’s a lawyer in my classroom.’ I tried to call her, but she didn’t answer, and then I got a call from another teacher’s husband telling me she was basically being held in her room until she gave the school all the passwords she had for the school tech applications and computers,” Young said.

Young said that a lawyer from the diocese as well as an IT person and a human resources representative were in his wife’s classroom and would not allow her to use her phone or to leave.

“I went up there, and there was a female police officer at the door. I’m a former federal law enforcement agent,” Young said. “I told her I wanted to see my wife, and she said if I came in, I’d be trespassing according to the principal, so I asked the officer if my wife could leave, and she said yes. I asked her to go get her and bring her out. Eventually she did, but it took more than five minutes for her to come back.”

While Young went to move his car off property, as requested by the officer, he saw Mike Pellicane walking out of the building with another officer behind him, he said. Newton, Young said, remained inside the school building.

Young said he saw Pam Pellicane get escorted out of the building in tears before his own wife was brought out, also crying.

Although Young’s wife was not told she could not return to campus, she has elected to stay home for the final week of the school year along with her daughter, who is a student at St. Joseph’s North campus.

“I’ve been a Catholic my whole life. My mom taught in Catholic schools, I went to Catholic school, I’ve taught for 15 years in Catholic school, my daughter went to St. Dennis, and the diocese has let us down,” Pellicane said. “I’m truly heartbroken. I heard some of the students were crying about this ... and it broke my heart. They don’t deserve this. Apparently, they made us cards for the end of the year, and now we don’t even get to say goodbye to them.”

Diocese of Joliet response

Joel Young and both Mike and Pam Pellicane received letters from the diocese’s legal department, which The Herald-News has seen, stating that they are banned from the school property.

“This letter is formal notice that you are forbidden from entering or remaining on any part of the property of Sts. Dennis and Joseph Catholic Academy. If you attempt to enter or remain on either of these properties, you may be subject to legal action including arrest and criminal trespassing charges,” according to the letter. “A copy of this letter has been filed and is on record with the Lockport Police Department.”

When The Herald-News tried to confirm this with Lockport police, Deputy Chief Ron Huff replied that “no letters or trespass agreements are on file.” He said that the school could file a trespassing complaint against any of the three banned people, but that the police would not act against them without an official signed complaint being issued.

When contacted for comment on the incident, the Diocese of Joliet said: “No staff have been terminated from the school. The police were summoned to the school yesterday to assist with one staff member and two non-staff members who were causing a disturbance on school property while students were present in the school. Ultimately, no children or staff at the school were at risk of harm. Parents were properly notified of the incident.”

Police told The Herald-News that none of the individuals involved had caused a disturbance, and everyone who was asked to leave the building did so quickly and in an orderly manner.

When asked for clarification and sent Huff’s statement about the police being brought to assist with an employee’s termination, the diocese said the statement was “inaccurate” and reiterated that “no teachers were let go or terminated” Tuesday.

Chris Lareau, Pam Pellicane and Young’s wife, along with multiple other teachers, all had been informed that their contracts weren’t being renewed several months previously, but they expected to finish the school year.

As the diocese said in its response from the communications office: “Teacher contracts are approximately 10 months in duration at our Catholic schools. They ordinarily begin on a date in August and end on a date the following June. Typically, in the months of March and April, teachers are asked if they plan to return to teach the upcoming school year. If teachers say ‘no’ (typically because they’ve lined up another teaching job elsewhere), they are not offered a new contract for the upcoming school year.”

Both Pellicane and Lareau said that the paperwork asking whether they planned to return for the next school year arrived in January, just after Christmas break, which was significantly earlier than usual.

Lareau said she had indicated that she planned to return, although she turned in her response late with what she believed was permission from Diocese of Joliet Catholic Schools Superintendent James Quaid.

Pellicane said she responded “uncertain” on her form, in part because of her ongoing medical concerns.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to come back,” Pellicane said. “I need the job, and I like to work, but I have cancer, and I don’t like to use that as a crutch, but I just didn’t know at that time. I wasn’t the only one who answered that way. I didn’t think it would be a problem because it never has been.”

The forms needed to be turned in in mid-January.

On Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, the school posted eight openings on the diocese job board for the 2024-25 school year matching the descriptions of the teachers – seven full-time and one part-time – indicating that all the teachers who had not affirmatively answered by the deadline would not be asked back. All of the teachers affected were former St. Dennis teachers before the merger. Several of them, including Lareau and Pellicane, also had filed complaints with the diocese about Newton throughout the year.

The diocese did not respond when asked why Sts. Dennis and Joseph Catholic Academy staff was required to commit to their contracts months earlier than usual and why no follow-up was conducted with teachers who said they were uncertain before their jobs were posted.

The diocese said, “Extending an offer of a contract to a teacher is the sole discretion of Catholic school’s leadership.”

Sts. Dennis and Joseph Catholic Academy was being piloted as a diocesan school this year shared between two parishes. The pastors at both St. Dennis and St. Joseph, the Rev. James Dvorscak and the Rev. Gregory Rothfuchs, respectively, had no significant roles in making staffing decisions at the school, leaving Newton with the leadership role on personnel.

The Herald-News reached out to both Quaid and Newton to comment on the situation.

Quaid answered that all comments be directed to the diocese’s communications office. Newton did not return calls or emails.

The teachers said they are exploring options for legal action against the school and the diocese for how they have been treated, and Lareau already has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.