We have important information regarding alleged misconduct by another Lake Forest High School employee, Ryan Eleveld (known to students as Mx. E), that was not reported to parents or the community. While our investigation is ongoing, and we will keep you updated with developments, we have sufficient information to release a preliminary report.
Additionally, we would like to thank the brave LFHS student who used our confidential reporting tool to inform us of this incident. Without his bold action, we would not have been able to conduct this investigation, and neither the parents of children in contact with Ryan Elveld nor the Lake Forest-Bluff community would have ever known what transpired this school year.
If you have any additional concerns or information to report, please use our confidential reporting tool.
Thank you,
Parents Care
In the spirit of transparency, this report contains complete documentation of our investigative processes and the District's response. All files used in this report can be found here.
Executive Summary
Parents Care received a complaint from a student alleging that substitute math teacher Ryan Elveld had engaged in improper behavior with a student and that the school was covering up the real reason for Eleveld's termination.
Ryan Elveld was alleged to have consistently been alone with a student, and it was suggested that the "non-academic" online conversations with this student warranted an investigation.
Lake Forest School District 115 opened an investigation into Ryan Elveld and the alleged relationship with this student. Eleveld was put on leave, not allowed on school grounds, and prohibited from contacting current D115 staff members.
The Director of Student Activities filed a report concerning Ryan Elveld with the Department of Child and Family Services.
Along with submitting a resignation letter, Ryan Elveld was terminated by the D115 School Board, triggering a Faith's Law notification. This recent law was designed to improve reporting of and transparency surrounding teachers and school staff members accused of sexual abuse and grooming in schools.
Ryan Elveld was barred from District property, and Eleveld's contact information is on file with the D115 Director of Security.
The District has filed a report with the Illinois State Board of Education and provided them with supporting documents.
The Illinois State Board of Education subpoenaed Superintendent Dr. Matthew Montgomery regarding Ryan Elveld.
To date, the school district has NOT informed the parents of Ryan Elveld's students or the community of the incident or the reason for his termination. In a letter sent to the parents of Ryan Elveld's students, the Mathematics Department Chair informed them simply that Ryan was "out on leave."
Original Complaint
On May 7th, 2024, Parents Care received the following complaint from a Lake Forest High School student:
The Investigation
Following this complaint, we immediately emailed the District communications coordinator, Melissa Oakley, the following email, which you can read here, imploring the District to take this issue seriously and to notify parents and the community.
We received the following response, which you can read here:
We then issued a Freedom of Information Act Request, which can be found here.
On May 21, 2024, we received a response to our FOIA from the District, which can be found here along with the responsive records which can be found here.
Background On Ryan Eleveld
Ryan Elveld was employed as a full-time mathematics substitute teacher by Lake Forest High School D115.
According to a LinkedIn account, Eleveld worked as an information technology specialist at Lake Forest High School from 2017 to 2023.
The Findings
The initial complaint we received was that Ryan Elveld had allegedly engaged in an improper relationship with a student.
While the district will not provide Parents Care or the parents of Ryan Elveld's students any details concerning his termination, we can confirm particular details regarding the allegations of his behavior based on the responsive records we received via our Freedom of Information Act request.
On October 6th, 2023, Ryan Elveld and members of the school district administration met. At this meeting, it was discussed how Ryan Elveld was allegedly "consistently alone" with "one particular student," and there was an "expectation" that this would not occur.
On October 16th, 2023, Ashley Malec, Director of Student Activities, received an email thanking her for a report she filed to the DCFS Hotline Child Abuse/Neglect Hotline regarding Ryan Elveld. She was informed that the information she provided did not meet one of the criteria for an investigation (eligible victim, eligible perpetrator, eligible event, or jurisdiction).
On October 16th, 2023, at 3:57 PM, in an email between Ryan Elveld and Phil Georgia, the district's head of human resources, Ryan Elveld asked whether resigning was an option, if resigning would be an admission of fault and when that decision would have to be made. Phil Georgia replied that more time was required before they could meet with Ryan again and not to contact any current employees.
On October 16th, 2023, at 9:19 PM, Ryan Elveld sent a resignation letter to Lake Forest High School principal Erin Lenart.
On October 18th, 2023, Phil Georgia confirmed receipt of Ryan Elveld's email to Erin Lenart. Phil Georgia then informed Ryan that the district needs to finish its investigation before it can respond to his resignation letter. Additionally, Phil Georgia asked for district devices given to Ryan Elveld and requested assistance unlocking a device that was turned in.
On October 18th, 2023, Ashley Malec, Director of Student Activities, requested Ryan Elveld's Google chat transcripts from Jordan Salus, Chief Technology Officer.
On October 25th, 2023, Ryan Elveld emailed Phil Georgia to ask about the status of his investigation and requested to attend a school district event. Phil Georgia informed Ryan that not to enter school district grounds because of the investigation.
In the same email, Phil Georgia said it was brought to his attention that Eleveld communicated with a student through Google chat. He asked Eleveld to come to the district office on Tuesday, October 31st, to discuss the conversations.
Ryan Elveld replied to the email: "I clearly said during our Monday meeting the majority of our non-academic conversations happened via Google Chat. I'll see you Tuesday."
In an email from Phil Georgia to Ryan Elveld on October 31st, 2023, summarizing the meeting, his pattern of being consistently alone with one particular student was brought up again, along with the expectation that this was not supposed to happen. Phil Georgia offered Ryan Elveld the opportunity to provide a rebuttal and a list of supports. Ryan was told to coordinate with Phil on a case-by-case basis regarding attending future school events.
On November 1st, 2023, Phil Georgia reported misconduct for Ryan Elveld to the Illinois State Board of Education, stating that Eleveld would be terminated at the upcoming board meeting and providing ISBE with a termination letter, a timeline of events, and a misconduct report. Phil Georgia also made a Faith's Law notification. Faith's Law is a recent law designed to improve reporting of and transparency surrounding teachers and school staff members accused of sexual abuse and grooming in schools.
On November 2nd, 2023, ISBE responded to Phil Georgia, confirming receipt of his emails and asking him to submit a form.
On November 7th, 2023, Ryan Elveld's termination was approved by the D115 school board.
On November 8th, 2023, Ryan Elveld was notified of his termination.
On November 13th, 2023, Ryan Elveld received an email from Phil Georgia stating that the D115 property ban remains in place, that the security team has been provided notice about this, and that Eleveld's contact information will be entered into the Raptor system's Trespass feature.
On November 13th, 2023, Phil Georgia emailed security director Chuck Walsh with Ryan Elveld's contact information. The email informed Erin Lenart and associate principal Patrick Sassen that Chuck was entering "No Trespass" into the system.
On January 25th, 2024, Superintendent Dr. Matthew Montgomery was served a subpoena by the state of Illinois State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board:
Conclusion
We take no joy in reporting this information. Still, we will continue to do so until the school board and administration adopt a policy of complete transparency for the safety of our children and the rights of parents and stakeholders.
The preceding preliminary report was based on our original complaint and the responsive records received through the FOIA we submitted. We encourage you to review all the files relevant to this report here.
While we have been informed of additional details in various conversations with other whistleblowers, we do not feel confident sharing those details until we have concrete empirical evidence to support them.
We are in the process of conducting additional inquiries regarding this incident and will continue to keep you updated.
The safety and well-being of your children is our number one concern at Parents Care, and we will continue to use all available legal efforts to bring transparency to our schools and advocate for change.
Thank you for all you do and for your support of our mission.
Parents Care
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