Candidate for CPS principals’ group arrested on phone charge

A retired Chicago Public Schools principal running to become president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of telephone harassment, police said Friday.

Former Prosser Career Academy Principal Ken Hunter, 63, surrendered Tuesday to officers in the Jefferson Park District and was placed in custody for allegedly harassing a woman with numerous text messages, police spokesman Frank Giancamilli said.

A police report says the 44-year-old woman reported receiving 20 to 30 text messages a day from Hunter. She told him to stop and he refused, the report said.

The report said Hunter admitted texting the woman numerous times, according to Giancamilli, who didn’t have any details about the contents of the texts.

Hunter was released after posting $1,500 bail, Giancamilli said. His next court date is June 13.

Hunter is facing embattled Chicago Public Schools Principal Troy LaRaviere to head the principals’ association.

Sun-Times files

LaRaviere was removed last month as principal of Blaine Elementary School in Lake View. On Thursday, LaRaviere held a news conference to say CPS is moving to fire him for failing in part to fill out paperwork needed to evaluate his teachers, which he considered a waste of time and which didn’t create more effective teachers.

A hearing into the LaRaviere case was held Wednesday, and on Friday, a Chicago Public Schools hearing officer recommended that LaRaviere be suspended without pay, CPS said. That recommendation now goes to the Illinois State Board of Education, and eventually back to the Chicago Board of Education to vote on a final course of action.

LaRaviere, 45, has been a vocal critic of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and contends the mayor’s administration is worried about his promise to give principals a bigger voice in how schools are run.

LaRaviere said he wouldn’t use Hunter’s arrest to “capitalize on this to make my opponent look bad.”

“I am very adverse to making judgments on people based on accusations,” he said. “I am always concerned that people make judgments before the legal system has run its course, so I am certainly not going to make one myself.”

Hunter didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Contributing: Lauren FitzPatrick