CARTERVILLE — The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and Illinois State Board of Education have served subpoenas on the Carterville school district in southern Illinois seeking the personnel file and any disciplinary records of John J. Wakey, a Carterville High School teacher and assistant football coach who is under investigation for criminal sexual abuse.

The sheriff’s office served its subpoena on the district for Wakey’s records on Feb. 25, four days after announcing it had opened an investigation involving an unnamed Carterville school district employee accused of sexually abusing a former student.

Capitol News Illinois obtained the subpoenas under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Sheriff Jeff Diederich told CNI last week that his office has received numerous calls since making the announcement and believes there may be multiple victims.

A second subpoena from the sheriff’s office, issued the same day investigators sought Wakey’s personnel file, requests academic records for 17 former students whose names were redacted by the district, citing a privacy exemption under Illinois’ public record law. The subpoena does not indicate why investigators are seeking the former students’ records.

A subpoena is a legal public record that’s part of an official investigation. It does not indicate that wrongdoing has occurred, or detail any allegations, and Wakey — who has worked in the district for more than two decades — has not been charged with a crime. He did not respond to multiple calls and text messages to his cell phone seeking comment.

The district must provide the records by March 26 to Williamson County Deputy Mike Flaningam. The sheriff has confirmed that Flaningam, who joined the department on Jan. 1, 2025, and formerly served as the chief of police in Carterville, is the lead investigator on the sexual abuse case involving Wakey.

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The Carterville school district previously announced that it placed the employee on administrative leave after receiving notification from the sheriff’s office on Feb. 20.

On Friday, Diederich said the sheriff’s office did not have further comment about the subpoenas. Carterville Superintendent Sarah Barnstable had not responded to a list of questions about the matter as of Friday afternoon.

Separate inquiry by state education board 

The Illinois State Board of Education has also issued a subpoena seeking records related to Wakey’s employment. ISBE served the district with the subpoena Monday — one business day after CNI and the Saluki Local Reporting Lab reported that an FBI tip that initially started the inquiry into the Carterville school employee had been made in November 2024 — nearly a year and a half before allegations became public — and the employee placed on leave.

The state agency oversees education licensing in Illinois and is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct involving licensed teachers. Such investigations are separate from criminal or child welfare investigations, though ISBE may obtain information from those agencies if they are involved in the case. Though the agency was made aware that CNI had obtained its subpoena in a public records request, ISBE spokesperson Lindsay Record said the agency still could not comment on or confirm whether any specific investigation was underway.

The ISBE subpoena, which is described as part of a “licensure investigation” of Wakey, also seeks emails, text messages, internal investigative reports, interview notes, witness statements and other records related to his employment. The district has been ordered to produce those materials to ISBE by April 16.

Questions about reporting requirements

An FBI spokesperson in Springfield told CNI last week that its National Threat Operations Center, which serves as a central intake for public tips regarding federal crimes, had received information about possible abuse by a Carterville school employee in November 2024. At the time, the spokesperson said the FBI determined it did not have jurisdiction to lead the investigation and turned it over to local law enforcement.

Flaningam received the tip that same month from an FBI agent in Marion while he was still serving as the police chief in Carterville. The following month, city officials opted not to renew Flaningam’s contract; his employment with the city ended on Dec. 31, 2024. He was hired as an investigator in the sheriff’s office beginning the next day and transferred the case prior to his exit. Diederich said the case remained largely dormant for 15 months due to a lack of evidence.

The announcement of the investigation has shaken Carterville, a southern Illinois community of about 5,800 people known in southern Illinois for its strong school system, as well as its high school football tradition.

In the wake of the investigation, some parents and community members have questioned why the district did not make a report to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services upon first learning about the FBI tip in November 2024. Educators are mandated reporters under Illinois law and must report suspected child abuse or neglect to the state’s child abuse hotline.

Barnstable, the Carterville school superintendent, said the tip, as relayed to a district administrator in November 2024, was anonymous and unverified, and school officials did not have enough information to conduct their own investigation or file a report to DCFS. She did not respond to a question about which administrator received the report, and whether that individual notified anyone else, including the district’s attorney and school board members

Barnstable said the district took immediate action once law enforcement notified administrators on Feb. 20 that a former student had provided a formal statement. The sheriff’s office notified the district that it had made a report to DCFS at the same time, she said.

It is not clear whether an earlier report would have triggered a child welfare investigation. Diederich said his office has not spoken with any alleged victims who are currently minors or enrolled in the district. The individuals who have come forward are former students who are now adults, and DCFS typically only investigates allegations of abuse and neglect involving victims under 18. Reports involving child victims of abuse who are now adults are generally referred to law enforcement, according to DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan.

Public sanctions against educators, including license suspensions and revocations, are published on ISBE’s Educator Quality webpage.

CNI and the Saluki Local Reporting Lab have also requested any disciplinary records related to Wakey through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Barnstable asked for an additional five days to respond to that request.

She said the district intends to respond by March 19 — the date of the next Carterville school board meeting, where several parents have said they plan to address the investigation and the school’s handling of it.

This story was produced for Capitol News Illinois through the Saluki Local Reporting Lab, supported by grant funding from the SIU Foundation and the Illinois Press Foundation.

Jackson Brandhorst is a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and a senior member of the Daily Egyptian, SIU’s student newspaper. Brandhorst can be reached at jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.