UPDATE:

Yesterday, we sent you an email concerning the below troubling story of a man on the sex offender registry being arrested for unlawful presence in a school zone.

Our investigation into this story continues, and we wanted to share additional information we have discovered in the last 24 hours since we sent our email.

We've learned that the man was charged because police believed he was on the grounds of the Lake Forest Park District and the preschool operating at that property, which is directly adjacent to Deer Path Middle School.

This puts the man near the Lake Forest Park District, Deer Path Middle School, and the preschool (in Illinois convicted sex offenders are not allowed within 500 feet of a school).

As you can see in the map below he was frighteningly close to DPM.

Lake Forest Park District and School District 67's Deer Path Middle School share an area south of Deerpath Road in Lake Forest, This picture is taken from the Park District property where the man was apprehended, just a short walk to the Deer Path School playground.

We believe District 67 has a duty to report this dangerous incident to parents.

The presence of a registered sex offender near school grounds, especially in proximity to children, represents a potential safety risk that parents deserve to know about.

Deer Path Parents deserve to know so they can ask their children if, God forbid, they had any interaction with this individual.

Transparency and timely communication are critical in maintaining trust between the school district and parents.

Reporting the incident would have allowed parents to stay informed and be vigilant, reinforcing the district's commitment to the safety of its students and community.

By not reporting, the district risks appearing to downplay or conceal information that parents would consider critical to their children's safety, which could erode trust and confidence in the administration.

We will continue to investigate this matter and share with you what we learn.

Best regards,

Parents Care.

BRIEF: We have important news to share regarding a convicted child sex offender on Lake Forest School Grounds, the administration's refusal to cooperate with us, and Dr. Montgomery and Melissa Oakley's decision not to notify parents or community members.

WHY IT MATTERS:

Parents deserve to know whenever an incident occurs at school that may have impacted their children so that they can ask their children the necessary questions to ensure their safety.
As voters, stakeholders are entitled to complete transparency from public school administration. They need the necessary information to voice concerns and lobby for desired outcomes to their elected school board representatives.

ACTION: Since the D67 Administration has been silent, please forward this to fellow Lake Forest parents and neighbors so they have the necessary information. Democracy demands an informed citizenry!

FULL STORY BELOW

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The Incident

As reported in the Lake Forest Police Blotter, on September 13th, 2024, a registered sex offender (10-year-old victim) was charged with three felony counts of unlawful presence in a school zone (Lake Forest Schools).

Lake Forest Schools communicatednothing regarding this incident, and not even the parents of the affected school(s) were notified.

Parents Care Investigates

Parents Care was made aware of the incident the following day, September 14th, 2024. As we have done in the past, our Board Chair proactively reached out to Chief Communications Officer Melissa Oakley but did not receive a return phone call.

Why did we reach out by phone?

Upon labeling Parents Care an "opposition group," Superintendent Matthew Montgomery instructed his staff to ignore our emails and forward them to the FOIA officer. As such, we almost never receive responses anymore.
On the Lake Forest Podcast, Dr. Montgomery publicly stated that he did this because he did not have the time or resources to read and respond to our emails.
We have not been able to receive replies from Chief Communications Officer Melissa Oakley because she reported our Parents Care domain emails as spam (see picture).

Three Weeks of Silence

While we wanted to inform the community sooner, several parentstold us they had contacted the schooldistrict, so we decided to wait several weeks to see if they would respond.

Regretfully, Dr. Montgomery and his administration neither responded nor publicized the student safety incident, leaving it once again to us, unfortunately, to be the bearers of this news.

We will cut straight to the chase: we are once again profoundly disappointed that Lake Forest School District 115 superintendent Dr. Montgomery and Chief Communications Officer Melissa Oakley refuse to work with us to promote better transparency regarding the safety of our children.

What Are Their Priorities?

With a multi-staffed full-time communications department costing taxpayers nearly $1,000,000.00 annually, we expect at least transparent, timely, and responsive communication.

To be sure, self-promotion is expected for public employees interested in their future job security, and we appreciate that Dr. Montgomery wants to use official school communications channels to celebrate what he does during the school day- be it community outreach or home tours- but we believe a different set of priorities should govern community-wide notifications and official school communications channels: the interests of our children and their families, especially when it comes to matters of safety involving our children.

Regretfully, time and time again, we have seen a pattern of silence and minimization regarding any issue that may demonstrate a failure of leadership or paint Dr. Montgomery and his administrative staff members in a bad light.

What is disappointing is that we know Dr. Montgomery and Melissa Oakley are capable of timely, detailed, and beautifully designed communication efforts! One has to look no further than the passion for robust and effective communications they demonstrated during the $106,000,000.00 bond referendum campaign.

As I am sure many of you remember, during the campaign to pax the tax increase, there were multiple weekly emails sent out community-wide, beautiful pamphlets and flyers mailed to every home, a steady stream of social media posts, pictures, and videos, and a professionally designed promotional video by Delack Media to the cost of several tens of thousands of dollars.

To be sure, we understand why Dr. Montgomery campaigned so vigorously for this tax increase: he was handsomely rewarded with a 23% raise within a week of the bond referendum passing. However, we are asking Dr. Montgomery to show a fraction of the enthusiastic spirit for robust communications regarding our children's safety as he did to pass a tax increase.

Recommendations

Given our concerns and the unlikelihood that district administration will ever concede to more supervision, we have a couple of recommendations for our school boards:

1. Require District Administration to Work With ALL Parents: Rather than kowtow to the desires of administrators who prefer no oversight, the school board should assume the expected mantle of regulators/supervisors and require the administration to partner with ALL parents in implementing policies and practices that ensure safer and more transparent schools.

2. Present a Coherent and Public Communications Policy to the Community and Vote On It: Many of our taxes fund the school district's communications office. It is unconscionable that this vital office has been allowed to become the personal promotion arm of Dr. Montgomery and his administration. There must be a clear and coherent transparency-driven policy with specific guidelines on the responsible use of the public's communications resources, and the Board must set it, not the individuals that benefit from controlling messaging.

Thank you for your time and support. We will continue to advocate for all children, parents, and taxpayers.

Best Regards,

Parents Care