Former teacher at Des Plaines school pleads guilty to harassing student
A former Des Plaines middle schoolteacher pleaded guilty last week to misdemeanor harassment by electronic means.
Jack K. Pickup had been charged with felony grooming and with sexual exploitation of a child. He was accused in June 2012 of texting a picture of his genitals to a 15-year-old girl who was a former student of his.
Pickup, 35, was arrested at his parents’ home in Barrington.
The girl’s parents reported to McHenry County authorities that he was communicating with their daughter by computer and text messages. She lived near McHenry. He met her when she was a seventh-grader at Chippewa Middle School in Des Plaines.
He was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service, and has to pay $3,035 in fines and court costs, according to online records from the McHenry County circuit court clerk’s website.