Lawsuit alleges District 300 failed to protect students from former employee

Algonquin-based Community Community Unit District 300 failed to protect students when an employee “improperly accessed” their personal files, harassed them and solicited sexually explicit images, according to a lawsuit filed against the district.

“He didn’t have any academic reason to look at student records,” attorney Daniel Fritz said of Donald Peters.

A McHenry County judge ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit can proceed, though some limits were placed on plaintiffs’ arguments.

Peters, 36, of Cary, worked at Westfield Community School in Algonquin as an attendance secretary from 2019 until his arrest in July 2023. In June, Peters was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing images of child sex abuse involving two District 300 students. Peters is required to register as a sex offender for life.

Fritz and attorney Stephanie White represent one of those students and his mother — identified in records as John and Jane Doe — in a lawsuit against Peters and the school district.

Authorities have said Peters accessed the personal information of more than 30 students in District 300 and cyberstalked, groomed, solicited and coerced them to send sexual images of themselves.

A district representative said District 300 does not comment on pending litigation. In court motions seeking to dismiss the case, the district said officials were unaware of Peters’ actions until after his arrest.

The lawsuit states Peters accessed John Doe’s personal email accounts, photos, contact information, school activities and curriculum.

Pretending to be a young girl, Peters sent naked photos to students including John Doe, then solicited them to send him images, according to the suit. When they didn’t comply, Peters threatened physical and sexual harm, the suit alleges. Peters did some of this during work hours, the lawsuit contends.

The harassment of John Doe began in the spring of 2019, when the boy was in middle school, and continued until Peters’ arrest in July 2023, according to the lawsuit.

Peters gained his confidence by misleading him “into believing he was interacting with another female student at his school who was attracted to” him, the lawsuit states.

“At no time … did District 300 intervene, prevent, stop or monitor Peters’ access” to the student records, the lawsuit states.

The boy’s mother learned her son was being solicited by someone to send naked pictures on March 14, 2023, according to the lawsuit. Because the wording was so specific to her son and his activities, his mother believed it was coming from an employee or coach in the district, the suit states.

She reported her suspicions to school officials the next day, but the district failed to investigate or report her concerns to police or the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, as they are required to do by law, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.

Jane Doe also went to Algonquin police, who opened an investigation. Police traced images and IP addresses to Peters’ cellphone, home address and his job at the district, reports indicate.

On May 8, 2023, police notified the district’s director of school safety about their findings. However, the district allowed Peters to keep working, with access to students’ information, and did not do any investigation on their own, according to the lawsuit.

In court motions seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, district officials argued the lawsuit has not supplied “sufficient facts” to “show that the District either manifested deliberate intent to cause harm to John Doe or it had a conscious disregard for John Doe’s safety.”

A judge on Tuesday agreed with the district’s attorney, Katherine Takiguchi, that there are limits to what the district could have reasonably done to monitor employees. Takiguchi said it would be an “impossible standard” to expect that the district could monitor all electronic devices of all employees.

John Doe, who has since graduated high school, suffers mental, emotional and physical pain caused by the bullying, harassment and fear Peters inflicted, White said.