‘We need to start to protect children’: Lawmaker calls for closing ‘loophole’ after teacher arrests
After two local teachers were arrested within days of each other, an area state lawmaker is renewing her call to close a “loophole” in Illinois’ sex offender registry laws.
State Sen. Darby Hills, a Barrington Hills Republican, is seeking petition signatures to get her bill, SB 2381, on the floor for a vote during the upcoming fall veto session of the state legislature. It would require sex offender registration when an adult is convicted of sexually motivated, unauthorized video recording of a minor.
Current Illinois laws have a loophole, Hills argues, regarding unauthorized videos, and it allows adults who record minors for sexual purposes to avoid the sex offender registry in cases where the victims don’t testify and the case isn’t considered a sex crime.
In an era of smartphones, readily available and easily hidden cameras, and online distribution, she said the act of unauthorized video taking of minors should be considered a registrable sex offense.
“We need to start to protect children,” Hills said. “They don’t seem to have a voice, and I’m just going to keep pushing with this, and hopefully get it across the finish line.”
But opponents of the bill and other efforts to expand criminal registries argue such databases don’t actually improve public safety and only hinder rehabilitation efforts.
Two cases, one week
In late September, police arrested Dagoberto Diaz, 48, of Mundelein, a middle school teacher serving as the girls’ junior varsity volleyball coach at Mundelein High School after, they say, he unlawfully video-recorded a female student.
Days later, John M Anderlik, 27, a teacher and girls’ basketball coach at Matthews Middle School, in Wauconda Community Unit District 118, was arrested by Crystal Lake authorities after, they say, he possessed and disseminated child sexual abuse material.
Although Hills said the two incidents spurred her call for petitions, Anderlik’s case would lead — if he is convicted — to his registration as a sex offender under current Illinois law. While only Diaz’s case would potentially fall within the loophole, Hills said she found both cases “very troubling,” and renewed her call to fellow lawmakers to advance the bill and “close this gap in Illinois.”
The Lake County state’s attorney’s office can only provide limited comments on Diaz’s case due to the ongoing investigation, according to office spokeswoman Sara Avalos.
“Because the defendant has been placed on administrative leave and is now monitored by the courts, we are satisfied that his access to children is limited while we complete the technical and trauma-informed aspects of the investigation,” Avalos said.
The office is working in conjunction with the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center and the Mundelein Police Department, she said.
Hills’ bill was originally prompted by a 2016 case in Chicago: Elliot Nott, a music teacher at Ogden International School who pleaded guilty to planting a camera in a bathroom at an elementary school and video-recording more than 20 teachers and staffers, as well as an 8-year-old boy.
Authorities said Nott had previously been charged with non-felony convictions for peeping and prowling during his time as a college track coach, as well as being convicted in a Downstate misdemeanor window-peeping case years earlier.
“There’s no tracking, no oversight, no community notification,” Hills said.
While Hills argues her bill would prevent such a scenario in the future, several prominent organizations have actually moved away from supporting criminal registries, including the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) and the American Civil Liberties Union, which Hills said previously voiced opposition to her bill.
A CAASE article from 2019 titled “The Sex Offender Registry Doesn’t Work” argues it doesn’t improve public safety, is “costly,” and “diverts critical resources away from survivors and prevention strategies.” The “crushing punishments … hobble offenders’ rehabilitation,” it said.
“Idealizing the registry as a prevention method lets law enforcement and legislators off the hook for actually changing rape culture,” the article said. “It’s foolish to keep investing in a system that begins after a crime is committed and relies on the minuscule chance that the offender will be convicted. Instead of clinging to a false sense of safety that impedes progress and inflicts inhumane punishment, we should be focusing on proven strategies.”
An ACLU representative said that while there is no evidence that registries improve public safety, there is plenty showing they negatively impact people’s lives.
“We understand the seriousness of the violations that the bill, as drafted, would add to the registry,” the representative said. However, “we continue to have serious concerns about the utility and the impact of these registries.”