Lake Forest District 67 Superintendent Matthew Montgomery is promising an examination of the district’s hiring procedures after the discovery that a newly hired teaching assistant was previously under criminal investigation.
In an Aug. 20 community letter, Montgomery wrote that the day before a District 67 staff member presented a “disturbing report” on the employee who had allegedly engaged in “inappropriate behavior” with a student in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The individual did not interact with District 67 children and his employment offer was quickly withdrawn, the superintendent said.
Kenosha police Lt. Joshua Hecker said in an interview the department had enough information to pursue charges against the suspect, but the alleged victim did not want to cooperate. The case was not referred to the district attorney.
However, questions were raised about how the person was initially hired by District 67.
“The individual misled District 67 staff on his resume and in his application process, and due to official charges not being filed with the authorities, the allegation did not appear on his background check or in his professional references,” Montgomery wrote in his community letter.
In an e-mail sent through a district spokeswoman, Montgomery said the district typically includes a Google search as part of the employee vetting process, but that was not done in this case.
“We are now systematizing this protocol and ensuring redundancies so that this does not occur again,” he wrote.
This incident marks the third time in less than a year Lake Forest schools have publicly encountered situations involving people working in one of the buildings.
In November 2023, District 67 fired a teacher after receiving a report that he was allegedly involved in a sexual relationship with a middle school student while previously working in another district.
In February, a temporary employee of a food service company attempted to pass a phone number to a student. The employee was quickly removed from the school, and district officials filed a complaint with his employment agency and notified the Department of Children and Family Services, Montgomery wrote at the time.
The superintendent referenced the series of events in his letter.
“Despite strengthening our processes, I am deeply concerned about the number of times this issue has surfaced in our districts,” Montgomery wrote. “To that end, I am calling for a full independent audit of our Human Resources hiring and vetting processes. I am currently curating third-party proposals for review by the Board. This audit will guide next steps in the matter and may include disciplinary measures, if warranted.”
Philippe Melin, a board member of Parents Care, an organization that has frequently questioned school procedures, expressed some disappointment in the incident. He said he hopes changes will be made.
“As Superintendent Montgomery acknowledges, there was a mistake made and this individual should never have been hired,” Melin said. “The person could have been discovered with a simple online background search. There are clearly gaps within the ecosystem and our organization looks forward to working with the schools and legislators to correct.”
