KENOSHA, Wis. — A Kenosha middle school teacher is on leave after disturbing allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student have come to light.
The news has prompted parents to reach out to TMJ4 News to look into what's going on.
The teacher, who we're not naming because they haven't been charged yet, works at the Kenosha School of Technology Enhanced Curriculum (KTEC) West. It's within the Kenosha Unified School District (KUSD).
"Why did you reach out to us," Reporter Jenna Rae asked a parent who didn't want to be identified.
"Because we can't get anywhere by ourselves. They don't want to listen to us," the parent responded.
"Is it fair to say that you don't trust the district, and that you're scared of repercussions and why you're scared to share your identity with the public right now," Rae asked.
"Yeah, absolutely," the parent said.
"I'm really upset about this. My daughter is 11. She has been at KTEC since Kindergarten. It's really unfortunate that I put my trust in that school for so long," parent, Alicia Figueroa, said.
It's trust these KUSD parents told us is now broken.
"To think that a serious concern of safety regarding children has been raised and they've done nothing but almost dismiss the issue," Figueroa continued.
In February, Figueroa and other parents said they learned about the middle school teacher's alleged misconduct from social media.
"I emailed the school, the principal, if he could share any information. It concerned me," Figueroa said.
In a 101 page report from the Kenosha Police Department, investigators said the teacher from KTEC West communicated with a middle school student via Snapchat, after school hours, starting back in June 2023.
Police said school leaders talked with the student earlier this year. Police were notified several days later.
"There were some inappropriate conversations going back and forth on Snapchat, so we start delving into that, and we learn that there were hundreds of deleted messages, after some phone downloads, and interviewing those involved," Kenosha Police Chief, Patrick Patton, said.
"Ultimately, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence for an arrest," the chief added.
Patton said had his department not gotten involved, things could've been worse.
"We believe it was a grooming-like relationship that started to cross the lines from what a traditional student-teacher relationship should be," Patton explained.
Kenosha parents said they were never told about the allegations.
"Nobody was notified at all that there's even an investigation or instant. We didn't even get an email regarding this until three days ago," one parent told us.
A spokesperson for the district sent us a statement saying they're aware of the allegations and take the allegations very seriously. The statement said in part that the teacher has not been back in the classroom pending the district's investigation, and that this is a personnel issue.
"This isn't a personnel issue. This is a man who victimized a 12-year-old child. This isn't a personnel issue. This should be on every news station saying how come there's not action on this," one parent pleaded.
"Kind of sweeping it under the rug like the district and the school is doing is only enabling others who have bad intentions with our children," Figueroa said.
Figueroa started an online petition calling for the teacher's termination and changes to rules at the school district when it comes to transparency with parents.
The petition was started five days ago and has nearly 900 signatures.
KUSD's school board meets Tuesday night and TMJ4 will be there.
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