Jim Moss said that when he stood up before the Lake Bluff District 65 Board of Education on Tuesday night, he’d waited 42 years to publicly make the formal statement that he had been sexually abused by a former teacher at the district.
"To the best of my knowledge, I am the first abuse victim of (a former teacher) in Lake Bluff," Moss said. He said the "most painful aspect" of that was knowing the same man may have gone on to abuse other children.
District documents show that Lake Bluff Junior High – now Lake Bluff Middle School – employed the teacher, who also coached two sports, in the 1970s and 1980s. Lake Bluff police said that they are currently investigating the former teacher, though that investigation has not concluded. The Pioneer Press is not naming the teacher because he has not been charged with a crime.
Moss, a Lake Bluff resident, told the school board that he assumed after district officials learned of potential abuse, the teacher would have been labeled a sexual predator and barred from teaching. Moss said he was distressed to learn that did not happen and that the teacher went on to a long career in California.
Jim Moss Michael Schmidt / Pioneer Press Jim Moss of Lake Bluff talks to the Lake Bluff School District 65 board members Tuesday night. Jim Moss of Lake Bluff talks to the Lake Bluff School District 65 board members Tuesday night. (Michael Schmidt / Pioneer Press)
"(The teacher) is a monster," Moss read from a prepared statement. "In a short span of time, in Lake Bluff, (he) progressed from providing students with pornography, alcohol and conducting inappropriate touching to the most horrific acts imaginable."
Prior to Moss’ statement at the meeting, Board President Mark Barry spoke.
"We want the public to know we take these allegations very seriously and we feel compassion and concern for anybody who may have been impacted," Barry said. "Lake Bluff School District 65 believes that protecting the safety and well being of our students is our paramount duty."
District 65 also posted a statement on its home page Wednesday detailing the training and reporting responsibilities that educators and administrators have, and saying that since the teacher left the district, laws have changed with regard to "confidential agreements with former employees."
Lake Bluff Deputy Police Chief Mike Hosking confirmed Wednesday that authorities are investigating a former school district employee due to "some allegations," but he did not name the employee.
"It’s been something we’ve been working on for months," he said. "We’re interviewing a number of people to determine if they are witnesses or victims."
School Board President Mark Barry Michael Schmidt / Pioneer Press School Board President Mark Barry listens as Jim Moss of Lake Bluff talks to the Lake Bluff School District 65 board members Tuesday night. School Board President Mark Barry listens as Jim Moss of Lake Bluff talks to the Lake Bluff School District 65 board members Tuesday night. (Michael Schmidt / Pioneer Press)
Hosking said the matter has been complicated by the decades that have passed.
"People have moved, changed names, gotten married," Hosking said. "It’s difficult to track a lot of these people down."
Cynthia Vargas at the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office did not immediately return an email and phone call seeking confirmation of when Lake County authorities first learned of the abuse allegations against the teacher.
Prosecutors have not filed any charges against the teacher in Lake County.
"I am waiting for the investigators to complete the investigation so we can review it for any potential charges," Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said.
In 1985, the District 65 Board of Education sent a letter to the teacher notifying him of a hearing to determine whether to dismiss him, according to District 65 documents gained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Pioneer Press.
The letter charges that "in late May 1985, you took two minor male students of this school district to an unoccupied home of (redacted) in Waukegan and there exhibited (redacted) to these students (redacted)."
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The same day, the teacher submitted a resignation letter to the then-superintendent, effective immediately, the documents show, and the Board of Education met the next day to accept the resignation. In the resignation, the teacher did not comment on whether the allegations were true.
The board agreed to pay the teacher $22,392.70 for 133 days of accumulated sick leave and unpaid work, the documents show.
Moss, by that time, was in college.
"I heard through friends he was gone," Moss said during a phone interview before the school board meeting. "I assumed he would have been required to register as a sexual predator and been barred from teaching."
Instead, the teacher reportedly went on to a decades-long career at a southern California high school.
During his Feb. 14 statement, Moss described the initial response in the 1980s by District 65 to allegations as "promising" and commended its investigation that led to the teacher’s resignation.
The school board’s response after the resignation, however, "failed current and future students, alumni, taxpayers, future employers and any future victims," Moss said.
In the District 65 documents, when potential employers contacted Lake Bluff school officials, they confirmed the teacher’s employment but did not appear to have mentioned any abuse allegations.
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A copy of a statement on district stationary from the 1980s appears to be related to the former teacher’s job search. It states only that the teacher taught at Lake Bluff Junior High School during a particular period of time and was signed by the then-assistant superintendent.
A 1989 "memo of reference" said that the then-superintendent received a call from a school district in Pennsylvania to check on the background of the teacher, whom it was considering hiring. The superintendent confirmed the years the teacher had taught at Lake Bluff Junior High and said nothing else.
Moss said the district had a responsibility to do more.
"There are an inordinate number of people who are in therapy, who have trouble staying in relationships with friends and spouses, have trouble staying in employment, have trouble with alcohol and drugs and with social issues," Moss said.
Moss and others formed a private Facebook page that Moss said includes abuse survivors and their siblings, friends and classmates.
"It’s been an outstanding network for victims," Moss said.
The Pioneer Press typically does not name the victims of sexual assault, but Moss said he felt it was important to put his name to the effort of ensuring other children were protected.
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"The significance is in getting the schools to respond in the proper way to try to prevent future predators, figure what went wrong and to improve hiring and reporting practices," Moss said.
For that same reason, Moss said, he and others presented a petition to the California school district where the teacher taught.
The petition, which is also posted online, requests that both school districts take several actions, including appointing a "special investigative counsel" and enhancing training for identifying and dealing with suspected abuse.
The California school district does plan to hire a special investigative counsel to look into the allegations of sexual misconduct, according to an email from district officials. The school district also wrote that no allegations of abuse by the teacher during his time at the California school were reported to district officials.
Authorities with the southern California police department in which the school district is located said they were conducting a criminal investigation.
Meanwhile, in District 65, Barry said at the Board of Education meeting that "virtually all the safeguards sought (in the petition) are already in our current policies and procedures."
Moss said he was encouraged with the direction the District 65 board appeared to be taking, but expressed disappointment that more attention was not given to those who might have been abused in the past.
"I’m underwhelmed with the scope of the response," Moss said. "There is no concern with anyone but current students."
Chicago Tribune reporter Tony Briscoe contributed.
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