Former Schaumburg teacher admits abusing female student
A former Schaumburg High School teacher charged with sexually abusing a female student from May 2001 through January 2002 pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse.
In exchange for his guilty plea, Ronald L. Williams, 54, of Barrington, was sentenced to 30 months of sex offender probation and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. He was also ordered to pay $1,554 in fines. Williams is required to receive treatment and adhere to a curfew, among other conditions, prosecutors said.
At the time, Williams was 36 and the girl was 17. Prosecutors say they engaged in sexual activities in empty classrooms, the school science lab, at Williams' apartment and at Palatine hotels.
During summer 2001, one of Williams' fellow teachers learned of the abuse and informed school authorities, who investigated the allegations, prosecutors said during Williams' bond hearing last September. Williams initially denied inappropriate behavior, but during a subsequent police investigation, he admitted having a sexual relationship with the teen but said it began after she had turned 18 and graduated, prosecutors said.
In a statement released last September after Williams' arrest, Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 officials said DCFS, school officials and Schaumburg police investigated "suspicions about a relationship" in 2002. "No findings of wrongdoing were discovered to have taken place during the period of the student's enrollment at the time of the initial investigation," read the statement, which indicated Williams resigned in August 2002.
After Williams resigned from teaching, he went into the home remodeling business, according to his attorney.