KENOSHA, Wis. — A school community is grappling with the limits of what police are able to do and the frustration their school district has not done more.
A Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD) middle school teacher from KTEC-West is under investigation by the district for his out-of-school relationship with a student.
After KUSD parents reached out to TMJ4, we started investigating the allegations against this teacher and what the district is doing. We talk with Kenosha Police who said their hands are tied because Wisconsin doesn't have laws against grooming.
We speak with a child trauma expert who explains grooming and how to recognize it. We also took concerns to a Kenosha lawmaker to see why we don't have laws against grooming on the books, and what the legislature is doing to change that.
Since February, the Kenosha Police Department investigated a middle school teacher for allegedly inappropriately messaging a student after school hours on Snapchat.
TMJ4 found out Tuesday, the police don't think they have enough evidence to recommend charges.
"We believe it was a grooming-like relationship that started to cross the lines from what a traditional student-teacher relationship should be," Kenosha Police Chief, Patrick Patton said.
Actions that aren't specifically illegal in Wisconsin.
What is grooming?
Grooming is where an individual is trying to befriend or engage and develop a trusting relationship with another individual or child for the purposes of being able to manipulate or abuse them.
It's an action that Jody Pahlavan, a Child Trauma Expert, said can be done by any adult, like a teacher, coach family member, or neighbor.
"When that person is seeking out your child I think that should always raise a question," Pahlavan said. "Kids don't know they're being groomed, so that's the part that's really difficult."
Tips to look out for grooming
-Additional attention from adults, like gifts or special privileges.
- Increased secrecy from your child.
- Protection of where they're going and who they're talking to.
- Acting defensive.
"When they're connecting with your child outside of school, lots of after-school hours, outside of the protection of the school environment that's when it gets concerning," Pahlavan added.
We took this information from Pahlavan and the concerns from KPD about a lack of legislation to Kenosha representative Tip McGuire.
"This is one of the major things that we observed at the beginning of the session that I noticed that we sought to change," McGuire said.
Last month, Governor Tony Evers signed Act 200into law.
"It does create a criminal statute for school employees or people who work at a school, who make sexual comments to children to be held accountable for that," McGuire added.
The act helps provide accountability for sexual misconduct, that police say they can't prove happened in this case.
There are eight state including our neighbor, Minnesota, that have grooming laws on the books.
Representative McGuire told me he's looking into those other state laws to see what we can possibly adopt here in Wisconsin.
This is the third KUSD employee in the last five years to be investigated by police for sex crimes against children.
Former principal Curtiss Tolefree in 2019, and former teacher Nathan Gardner this past November.
Both of those cases are still going through the legal process.
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