A number of Chiddix Junior High parents are frustrated by what little information the Unit 5 school district has shared about two teachers who have been removed from the classroom.
The veteran teachers, Andrew Miller and Brandon Knapp, are the subject of separate police investigations.
"Jane" has a son who's in Andrew Miller's seventh grade language arts class at Chiddix.
Jane is not her real name. WGLT granted anonymity to several Chiddix parents to protect their children's identity.
Jane recalls getting a notification from the district of a hold, which is essentially a soft-lockdown, that happened earlier that day at Chiddix on Feb. 18.
“The email that we got from the school was just that there was a hold, there was nothing concerning. It was only two minutes. Everything was hunky-dory,” she said.
The district did not say why they held students in their classrooms. Jane said she found out later through news reports that police searched a teacher's classroom. She found out a week after the search that Miller had been removed from the classroom indefinitely and that a long-term substitute had been assigned. That message from the district went out only to families of Miller's students. It left Jane and her son with lots of questions that remain unanswered.
“Something should have been said then that the police came in, there’s an investigation going on. [The district should say] ‘Obviously, we’re not allowed to say anything. We don’t have any information until it is released to us,’” she said.
Police have not said what they are investigating. WGLT has reported Unit 5 placed Miller on leave in 2019 for an inappropriate conversation of a sexual nature with a high school athlete under Miller's supervision. That's when he was a cheer coach at University High School in Normal, which fired him. Following this latest investigation, Lexington High School fired Miller from his volunteer role as a cheer coach starting in 2024.
Jane is not the only Chiddix parent worried about student safety as police investigate two teachers. "Mary," [a pseudonym] has a son in Andrew Miller's class. She said Miller was her son's favorite teacher. Her son would frequently walk into Miller's classroom during lunch break to visit with him. Sometimes with other students. Sometimes alone.
“I think just the interaction of having my child continue to have multiple one-on-one conversations with this teacher alone; I find that wildly inappropriate,” she said, adding that her son has not claimed any inappropriate behavior by the teacher.
Mary was also frustrated by the tersely-worded communication from the district about Miller's removal.
“It didn’t say anything about providing transparency, other than resources for parents to offer counseling, if parents want their kids to see a counselor from school. But there’s nothing else that was said about how the school is going to handle student safety,” she said.
Student safety is not the parents' only concern. It's also the disruption that comes with removing a teacher from class long-term. "Susan's" [again a pseudonym] son was in one of Andrew Miller's classes last year. He in Brandon Knapp's eighth grade social studies class this year. Knapp is the other Chiddix teacher on paid leave.
The district recently reprimanded Knapp for what it described as grooming behaviors but has not told parents why he was removed from the classroom. Susan said the last few months in Knapp's class have been chaotic, with multiple substitute teachers going back to November. That's when Knapp first took what a school administrator described as "several personal days," according to a communication that a parent had shared.
It was her son's favorite class and now he tells her they aren't learning anything.
“There has to be some level of communication because it’s almost like the children are now falling back into the COVID mess nonsense of whether they are able to learn anything,” she said.
Susan said she's frustrated that the two teachers remained in the classroom for some time after the district disciplined them. “These are two teachers who have multiple slaps on the hand and yet we are still allowing them in the classroom with our children, where we are supposed to trust the school, the administration, the [Unit 5 School] Board. Even the board is avoiding questions now from other teachers in Unit 5 about what’s going on,” she said.
President of the Unit 5 School Board, Alex Williams, declined WGLT's request for an interview but issued a statement:
"I understand that limited information creates uncertainty and can lead to further questions in the community. The district always strives for transparency, however, when situations involve personnel matters and active investigations, the law places clear limits on what the district can share. As a member of the Board of Education, I have a responsibility to respect those legal boundaries while ensuring the district continues to work with the appropriate authorities and prioritize student safety.”
Investigative process
Parents waiting for answers could be waiting for a while.
“The law does not act as quickly as you want it to or as quickly as you think it would,” said Steven Glink, a Chicago-area attorney who specializes in employee discipline matters in education across Illinois.
Glink said it's common for school districts to place tenured teachers on paid leave while investigations continue. In Brandon Knapp's case, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services [DCFS] recently made a finding of sexual molestation and exploitation against him.
Glink said DCFS has a low standard for findings like this. He said “any credible evidence” will lead to what's called an indicated finding. Then the teacher can appeal.
“A lot of times schools will wait to see what the results of what the DCFS appeal is. That can take a long time and I’m guessing the public doesn’t like the fact that a teacher with an indicated finding is being paid for a whole year [while on leave],” Glink said.
Glink said the appeal can take up to a year because there are lots of DCFS appeals and only so many administrative law judges.
DCFS sent its findings to Unit 5 on March 2, which delayed the appeals process by about six weeks. It’s not clear when or if Knapp has received the formal finding, starting his 60-day appeal window. He and Miller have not responded to multiple requests for comment.
The district said Knapp remains on paid leave while outside agencies continue to investigate.
Glink said school districts can take action to remove a teacher before a DCFS appeal is complete, but they often decide to let the appeal play out first.
“To coin a phrase, they want somebody else to do their dirty work for them, if you know what I mean,” Glink said. “To interview all the witnesses… and then they subpoena the DCFS file and half their case is made,” he said.
A DCFS appeal is a quasi-judicial proceeding in which the accused can testify and question their accusers. The judge will recommend a decision whether to uphold or expunge the initial finding. The DCFS executive director has the final say.
Delay in reporting
Another concern parents have raised is why no one contacted DCFS until at least five days after the initial complaint against Knapp was filed. Glink notes it's a misdemeanor for mandated reporters not to report a reasonable claim of abuse or neglect within 48 hours, but he said abuse or neglect can be subjective.
“A lot of times a lawyer can argue no mandated reporter reported it for five days, so obviously nobody had a reasonable belief that was child abuse or child neglect,” he said.
Glink said failure to report cases are rarely filed, except in severe cases. Unit 5 said it was “additional information” shared five days after the initial report that prompted the call to DCFS.
A criminal justice professor at Illinois State University said Chiddix administrators should not have waited given Knapp's history. The district recently reprimanded Knapp for what it described as grooming behaviors but has not told parents why he was removed from the classroom. The district's letter of reprimand sent to Knapp in December cited "repeated unprofessional conduct in the classroom." and referenced two prior incidents that required the district to intervene in the last 18 months.
ISU’s Bill Lally, who is also Goodfield's Chief of Police, said waiting in a case like this sets a bad precedent.
“I understand the administration’s position that they don’t want to unnecessarily report to a state agency that any misconduct had taken place if misconduct had not in fact taken place—but I think we are past the point of where they are needing to cover their bases,” Lally said.
Lally said the district should be more transparent to help parents talk to their kids about how they can protect themselves.
“It’s difficult for parents to be able to talk to their children to see how broad these allegations may extend if they don’t in fact know which teacher to talk to their children about,” Lally said.
Lally said a lack of information leads to speculation.
