The Lake Bluff District 65 Board of Education on Wednesday publicly identified a former teacher accused of sexual abuse of students decades ago and pledged to fully cooperate with law enforcement investigations of allegations against the man.
The district posted the statement on its website a day after a Lake Bluff man told the school board the teacher sexually abused him decades ago.
The district, in an "open letter to the Lake Bluff School District 65 community," said some of the students of Charles T. Ritz, III, who "served as a teacher at Lake Bluff Junior High School from 1975 to 1985," had recently come forward to report that Ritz had sexually abused them.
Reading from a prepared statement, Jim Moss spoke Tuesday night to the District 65 board and said that he was abused by Ritz decades ago.
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)
Moss said that when he stood up before the board to share his story, he’d waited 42 years to publicly make the formal statement that he had been sexually abused by a former teacher at the district.
During his 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 the community, 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.
Prior to Moss’ statement at the meeting, District 65 Board President Mark Barry spoke.
"We want the community to know that we take these allegations very seriously and we feel compassion and concern for anyone 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."
The school district said in its statement online that the Lake Bluff Police Department and the Lake County State’s Attorney Office had both "launched investigations into the matter" and said the district was cooperating "fully with the authorities and will continue to do so."
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)
Ritz, who has not been charged with a crime, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the allegations or the district’s decision to identify him as the subject of accusations of sexual abuse.
Ritz was asked to resign from his Lake Bluff job as a math teacher and coach in 1985, according to District 65 personnel documents, but he went on to teach for decades in Fullerton, Calif., in Orange County. Officials at Fullerton Joint Union High School District, in which Ritz taught, said he retired in 2016. Both the Fullerton school district and Fullerton police said they have launched investigations into his time there.
Lake Bluff Deputy Police Chief Mike Hosking confirmed Wednesday that authorities in Illinois are investigating a former District 65 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."
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 Ritz.
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Lake County prosecutors have not filed charges against Ritz.
"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.
On Sept. 25, 1985, the District 65 Board of Education sent a letter to Ritz 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)."
The same day, Ritz 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 letter, Ritz did not comment on whether the allegations were true.
The board agreed to pay Ritz $22,392.70 for 133 days of accumulated sick leave and unpaid work, the documents show.
In the District 65 documents, when potential employers contacted Lake Bluff school officials about Ritz, District 65 officials confirmed his employment but did not appear to have mentioned any abuse allegations.
A copy of a statement on district stationary dated Nov. 13, 1985 appears to be related to Ritz’s job search. It states only that he taught at Lake Bluff Junior High School from 11 years from August 1974 through September 1985, and was signed by the then-assistant superintendent.
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A May 30, 1989 "memo of reference" said that the then-superintendent received a call from a school district in western Pennsylvania to check on the background of the teacher, whom it was considering hiring. The superintendent confirmed the years Ritz had taught at Lake Bluff Junior High and said nothing more.
In the documents provided to the Pioneer Press, Ritz’s employment contract appears to show he began work in 1974, not 1975 as the school district said in its statement online.
Moss said he and others presented a petition to the California school district where Ritz taught.
The petition, which is also posted on Change.org, requests that both school districts take several actions, including appointing a "special investigative counsel" and enhancing training for identifying and dealing with suspected abuse. In the statement on its home page, posted Wednesday, District 65 detailed 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."
The Fullerton school district plans 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 Ritz during his time at La Habra High School were reported to them.
Authorities with the Fullerton police department 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 included 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 what occurred in the past.
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"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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