The U-46 school board voted Monday night to terminate an assistant principal and accept the resignation of another educator – months after an NBC 5 Investigates’ report identified them as being investigated for sexual misconduct allegations during their time working at Chicago Public Schools.
In May, NBC 5 Investigates’ series “Lessons in Betrayal” detailed the accounts of several former students from Little Village Lawndale High School, who said they were either approached, witnessed, or were groomed into sexual relationships with their former educators.
Our investigation found that since 2017, at least five teachers and two administrators had been fired or resigned from the school amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Three of the educators – Charles Smith, Hans Krueger and Michael Abeja – all got jobs in Elgin’s U-46 district after resigning from their positions at Chicago Public Schools and while internal investigations by CPS into their alleged misconduct were still pending.
At the time of NBC 5 Investigates’ initial report in late May, a spokeswoman for U-46 said that the district was unaware of the allegations and that it had since place the men on administrative leave while it conducted its own internal review, which included reaching out to Chicago Public Schools.
Our investigation raised questions about what and how information was shared between school districts. An Illinois law passed by the legislature several years ago – known as “Faith’s Law” – requires additional backgrounding questionnaires and documents to be shared between districts – but portions of the law were staggered in their implementation – some as late as 2023.
Last month, we reported how a three-year long investigation by Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Inspector became public – and found that sexual misconduct allegations had been substantiated against several now-former educators at CPS – including Dennis Kass, Charles Smith, Hans Krueger and Danny Pena.
Prior to issuing this latest report this summer, the CPS inspector general had previously substantiated sexual misconduct allegations against Abeja and three other teachers from Little Village Lawndale High School.
Taken together, the inspector general’s office concluded that “eight members from one campus engaging in sexual misconduct or targeting former students suggests a systemic problem. This appeared to peak around 2015 or 2016, when seven of the eight engaged in misconduct. One student who graduated… was targeted by three of the … teachers.”
In most cases, the women told NBC 5 Investigates that their sexual encounters with their former teachers happened after they turned 18 or in the days, weeks or months after graduation.
While the OIG did not uncover an obvious root cause for such widespread misconduct, the report noted that “there were indications that Little Village Lawndale High School staff routinely crossed boundaries with students and created an environment where grooming behaviors might have seemed like normal interactions,” the CPS OIG report states.
“They would tell me that it looked like he was eating me with his eyes,” said a 2019 graduate who asked to be called “Michelle.”
She says she and former Chicago Public School principal Charles Smith had sex weeks after she graduated high school. Smith and his attorney have repeatedly vehemently denied the allegations.
She is one of several former students who came forward to NBC 5 Investigates this spring with allegations involving their former educators at Little Village Lawndale High School.
Internal inspector general documents, obtained by NBC 5 Investigates, show “Michelle” and Smith began exchanging text messages roughly 11 days after graduation.
In February of 2023, as Chicago Public School’s inspector general was investigating allegations against Smith and other educators, Smith was removed from the classroom. CPS district records show he resigned months later in July 2023 to take his new job as an assistant principal at Abbott Middle School in Eglin.
On this application for his job in U-46, he asked if he had ever been the subject of a sexual misconduct allegation or if he resigned while an allegation was being investigated.
He marked “no” for both.
At the time of our initial reporting in May, a U-46 spokeswoman said they were unaware that Smith and two other educators – Michael Abeja and Hans Krueger – had been placed on a temporary “Do Not Hire” list by CPS.
NBC 5 Investigates reached to Smith through his attorney Monday and are still waiting on a response. In the past, they have vehemently denied the allegations that he had sex with a former student.
While the OIG found “insufficient evidence that Smith groomed (a student) for sexual activity” – the OIG’s report did find his conduct was “unbecoming of a CPS employee,” and that there was sufficient evidence that Smith and “Michelle” engaged in sexual activity, according to the OIG’s report. The report also noted that there “sufficient evidence that his ‘flirtatious conduct’ toward female students violated CPS policy and was “especially egregious because he was a principal…”
As for Michael Abeja – he was pulled from a CPS classroom in June of 2021 amid misconduct allegations, in August of that year he resigned and was hired by Elgin.
Three years later in October of 2024, the CPS inspector general substantiated allegations against him that he groomed a student for the purposes sexual abuse. While there was no evidence of physical contact, the inspector general found Abeja violated CPS policy by making other students feel uncomfortable by commenting on their Instagram posts; and that, he had contacted a student frequently, inviting them to his home, on nighttime walks and commenting on their physical appearance.
Reached by phone Monday, Abeja hung up when an NBC 5 Investigates reporter identified himself.
Chicago Public Schools’ board of education is considering a policy change in wake of our reporting.
The most notable changes being proposed by the board including adjusting CPS policy to ban all CPS employees – including teachers – from using personal emails or social media accounts to communicate with current students or recent graduates up to a year after they graduate.
The district is also considering expanding professional boundary standards for teachers to include recent graduates up to a year after they leave the district.