School district leaders are not releasing any information that would identify the teacher, including where he taught. But according to an investigation by the Small Newspaper Group, he resigned from Chicago schools after an internal investigation showed he had had two sexual encounters with a 15-year old girl. He was never charged with a crime. Rockford schools then hired the teacher.
School leaders say they first learned of his record when a Small Newspaper Group reporter called the school district's attorney Steve Katz in October.
"We wouldn't knowingly hire anyone to be a teacher who had had an illegal, illicit affair with a minor child," says Katz.
Once Rockford received word about the teacher's past, school leaders had to conduct their own investigation because his name was blacked out in an insector general's report, since he was never criminally convicted. The teacher has since been placed on leave from Rockford schools.
Illinois public schools are not legally required to inform other districts of past employees' records. But Katz says this district routinely asks for references when making new hires. He is investigating whether that happened in this case.
A Chicago public schools spokesperson tells 23 News employees have the right to keep their personnel files confidential.
Still Katz says, "You should have called up the Rockford School District and told them what they had. There would be absolutely nothing prohibiting that. But they didn't."
Once the Rockford school district's investigation is complete, the school board will decide whether or not to fire the teacher.
Katz says other states have mandatory notification policies. He believes Illinois needs to come up with a similar way to share information and alert other districts when a teacher resigns or is fired in situations like this.