Carterville School board releases statement as assistant football coach faces sexual abuse allegations on former student
CARTERVILLE, Ill. (KBSI) – Carterville District Unit 5 Schools have released a statement expressing ‘deep concern’ regarding a sexual allegation report made by a former student on an Assistant Carterville Football Coach identified as John J. Wakey.
According to the statement released by the school they were made aware of a report made by a former student to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office of criminal sexual abuse by a Carterville Community Unit School District 5 staff member during the student’s enrollment the incident is estimated to have happened approximately 10 years ago.
The district states ‘when credible information was provided by law enforcement on February 20, the District acted immediately. We also contacted the Illinois State Board of Education to inform them of the criminal investigation of a District staff member and immediately
placed the employee involved on administrative leave, prohibited them from accessing school property, and directed them not to contact current or former District students or families.’
The district says they are fully complying with the investigation to both the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).
According to records John J. Wakey, has been employed as a teacher and assistant football coach at Carterville High
School since 2003. The District says they have been asked to provide the Sheriff’s Office with academic records for additional
former students who were taught or coached by Mr. Wakey during the same time period as the
reporting student (between 2009 and 2018).
The district shares a former incident report happened in 200stating their record show they received a complaint regarding unprofessional
communication and conduct involving Mr. Wakey. The district’s investigation found inappropriate text messages with students, as well as
inappropriate off-campus social interactions with and conduct in the presence of students (consuming
alcohol and tobacco products).
Following that investigation and guidance from legal counsel, at a public meeting, the Board of Education took disciplinary action against Mr. Wakey, including a 10-day suspension without pay and a formal remediation plan outlining clear expectations for professional
conduct moving forward.
Since the disciplinary action taken in December 2009 until November of 2024, the District says they received no complaints of this current nature regarding Jake Wakey.
In November 2024, the District was made aware of an anonymous FBI report and on February 4, 2025, the District received and
conducted its own due diligence in response to two anonymous FriendWatch reports that Mr. Wakey had sent inappropriate text messages to students.
The District contacted FriendWatch to see if they could provide additional details; they indicated that, as a confidential and anonymous reporting service, and ther service shared that unless the reporting party shares their identity or contact information, FriendWatch does not have the ability to access or provide such information.
The administration then asked if FriendWatch had the ability to reach out to the reporter(s) to encourage the reporters) to come forward with additional information. FriendWatch stated it did not have that ability.
As a result, the district’s investigation was limited to speaking only to Mr. Wakey, who denied having sent such communications.
The investigation is currently active the district shares if the findings of this investigation substantiate violations of current District policy and/or the professional conduct directives provided to Mr. Wakey in 2009, the Board will pursue appropriate disciplinary action.
