Article Summary
- The Carterville School Board has indicated it intends to fire the assistant football coach and teacher charged with nine counts of criminal sexual abuse.
- John “Jake” Wakey is accused of sexually abusing students at Carterville High School over a period of years during the 2013-15 school years.
- Wakey can request a dismissal hearing and in the meantime has been suspended without pay.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CARTERVILLE — The Carterville School Board voted Tuesday night to begin the process of firing John “Jake” Wakey, the Carterville High School assistant football coach and teacher who is charged with nine counts of sexual abuse against students, including members of the football team.
The decision came during a special meeting five days after Wakey’s arrest.
According to dismissal documents obtained by the Daily Egyptian, the board concluded that Wakey engaged in “unprofessional, unacceptable, and immoral conduct,” demonstrated a “consistent pattern” of inappropriate communication with students and was “not qualified to teach.”
He has 17 days after receiving the notice to request a formal dismissal hearing overseen by a hearing officer. If he does not request one, the dismissal automatically takes effect. In the interim, Wakey has been suspended without pay. Wakey had been on paid administrative leave for nearly three months, during which he continued receiving his roughly $3,300 biweekly salary.
Wakey was arrested on Thursday, May 7, near Pontiac, Illinois. He is charged with nine Class 2 felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving victims ages 13-17 by a person in a position of trust during the 2013, 2014 and 2015 school years.
Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich said during a May 8 news conference that four former Carterville students had provided formal statements to investigators after months in which detectives had only one verified statement from an alleged victim.
Diederich also said investigators had developed “solid and credible information” identifying nine potential victims connected to the Wakey investigation.
A day after his arrest, Wakey was transferred from the Livingston County Jail in Pontiac to the Williamson County Jail in Marion. He then spent three nights in the Williamson County Jail and was released from custody on Tuesday, May 12. During a detention hearing Tuesday, Williamson County Judge Michelle Schafer denied Williamson County State’s Attorney Ted Hampson’s petition for Wakey to remain in custody throughout the remainder of the trial.
“The defendant has no prior criminal history, and there is no history of violent or abusive behavior,” Schafer wrote in her decision. “Abuse is alleged to have occurred over 10 years ago … the relevant inquiry is whether the historical facts translate into a current danger. During this 10-year window, the defendant has had no criminal conduct, has maintained employment and has established community ties. As a result, detention is denied.”
Wakey was released on pretrial conditions including GPS electronic monitoring and residency confinement at his parents’ home in Herscher, Illinois.
Board notes ‘consistent pattern’ of wrongdoing
The notice of dismissal from the board of education repeatedly references Wakey’s “consistent pattern” of inappropriate communication with students, including text messages from 2022 and 2025, the Daily Egyptian previously reported.
The board alleges that Wakey “engaged in unprofessional, unacceptable, and immoral conduct” by communicating via text message with a student in March 2022 and December 2025.
The dismissal document also acknowledges that Wakey violated a 2009 disciplinary warning. During that time, he was suspended for 10 days after the board found that he was “sending inappropriate text messages to students.”
The board also alleges that Wakey initially denied having sent those text messages in each account, and that he also “failed to attend an investigatory conference with school administrators on April 16, 2026,” concerning the current investigation.
During Tuesday’s special meeting, the board heard comments from several parents of both former and current students concerning the conduct of the board. Parents raised various questions about mandated reporting, the validity of internal investigations and student safety.
They also asked why administrators did not act sooner to remove Wakey from the classroom and called for accountability for district employees who may have been complicit in Wakey’s alleged crimes.
Board members did not respond to any questions or concerns raised during Tuesday night’s meeting. Previously, the district said it did not have enough credible information to take action when it first learned that allegations had been made to the FBI in November 2024.
During the meeting, board President David Schwartz read aloud a statement detailing the notice of dismissal. The board also sent out a statement to parents of the district signed by Superintendent Sarah Barnstable notifying them of their decision after the meeting.
Currently, no other district employees have been charged in relation to the investigation.
Wakey’s next pretrial hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. June 24 at the Williamson County Courthouse.
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