Former ETHS Teacher Accused Of Sexual Abuse

EVANSTON, IL — Evanston Township High School administrators issued a no-trespass order against a former drama teacher following allegations he sexually abused students for years. In a note to the community Thursday, ETHS Superintendent Eric Witherspoon said the school had been made aware of the accusations and notified the Evanston Police Department the previous day. Several former students have publicly accused the teacher of inappropriate sexual conduct, and one said her family informed school administrators of the behavior more than 20 years ago.

The accused former drama teacher had bought a ticket and was planning to attend an anniversary celebration of the school's annual student-produced musical comedy revue “Showcase ETHS! A Tribute to YAMO's 60th," Witherspoon wrote.

The no-trespass order forbids the former teachers presence on campus or "at any school-related or school sponsored activities and events," according to the superintendent. The former teacher supervised ETHS's YAMO shows for many years.

As the entertainment industry comes to terms with the widespread silence and fear connected to exposing sexual abuse by men in positions of power, recently underscored by the growing number of women who have recounted unwanted physical encounters with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, some alleged victims have felt emboldened to speak publicly about their experiences.

One of them, Jeff Lieber, a Los Angeles-based show-runner and former writer for the TV series "Lost," shared his account of the former ETHS drama teacher on Twitter on Wednesday:

In high school, my acting teacher was a serial pedophile and abuser. He'd reach down our pants, touch the male genitals of [students] it was the same kind of open secret we're hearing of today, but we all put up with it as "the price of entry." To my knowledge he never got so bold as to go beyond joking around but we all understood that [it] was couched in fun was a way for him to exercise his closeted proclivities and exercise his power. For me, it was particularly confusing because I was one of his favorites and therefore by keeping my mouth shut and playing along I got good roles, attention and was given a chance to follow my artistic passion. It wasn't until I left for college that I actually confronted him, writing a letter, telling him what I thought of his behavior and calling it out as inappropriate, at which point he made all the usual excuses about how I'd misunderstood his intentions. That moment was effectively the end of our relationship. My only sadness and regret – which I've revised a hundred times since then – is that I never went public and therefore left him in place to continue the behavior. For that I apologize intensely to all who followed.

Another ETHS alum and Hollywood producer, Ben Wexler, responded, vouching for Leiber's account, saying the same teacher did the same thing with him.

But unlike Jeff, I never had the courage to confront the guy directly. I'm not mad at my 17-year-old self, who didn't think it was that big a deal & didn't want to make waves, for this I'm mad at my 30-year-old self, who knew better. Who knew there were still kids being taught by this guy. To those kids, I apologize. One last thing, if you're a dude reading this and you're thinking... "Man, if some guy stuck his hand down my pants, down my boxers, and touched my butthole, I'd have turned around & punched him in the face" No, you probably wouldn't have. Not if you were 17. Not if the guy was bigger than you. Not if your dream was to be and actor, and he cast all the plays. You'd have laughed it off, I can say this with near certainty. If you read accounts of women who were sexually abused and disbelieve them, or think, "[W]hy didn't they come forward sooner?" I'm here to tell you – this [stuff] is NOT fun to talk about and I wish I were doing anything else right now. It's only because of Jeff's courage, and the and the courage of these women, that I'm writing this.

After reading the tweets, John W. Ennis, another veteran of YAMO productions and a filmmaker in Los Angeles, recognized the behavior.

"Oh [expletive], I know all of that. I lived that. Holy cow. That's what I went through. It's really a true story."

Ennis, who graduated ETHS in the early 1990's a few years after Lieber, said the quality of the school's theater department and education was world-class. That was part of the reason many students reported being hesitant to complain.

"It's just that he tended to grab guys' crotches now and again while that was going on, and that was the problem. That's crossing the line. At the time, to me it was always, 'Watch out if he tries something,'" Ennis said. "Now we would say that's actually enough to say that was bad, but at the time you were like, 'Okay if he really foists himself on you, that'd be one thing,' but it became sort of like a 'grab-ass' type of environment."

The accused teacher was known as a well-dressed, imposing and intriguing figure who other students would look up to, Ennis said. He would generally treat his students like adults, occasionally swearing, sometimes using sexual innuendo and physical grabbing, poking or jostling. Ennis said as far as he knew, the teacher never directly forced himself on any students.

"It's much easier to describe it now as sort of like an environment of sexual harassment. Say he would try to grab your crotch or something, you would pull away, and be like, 'Ha-ha, yeah.' And that's kinda what it always was, knowing, to an extent, that you're going to pull away," Ennis said. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Evanston — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Another former student says the teacher's behavior was reported to school administrators in 1993.

"ETHS knew. They've known," said poet and professor of English at the University of Houston, Katharine Jager. She told Patch her mother went to speak with the school's superintendent about it but was rebuffed.

"Because I had only seen something, and because he hadn't touched me, they didn't really want to move forward. And we were told, basically, because he was such an active teacher, that there wasn't really anything anyone could do," Jager said.

"I didn't want to remain in theater as a consequence. And I wasn't. After I came forward I stopped, which was OK because I wanted to stay away from him, I thought he was really creepy," she said.

"I didn't want to be anywhere near the theater after that, because it was clear the school couldn't protect me or the other students he was touching." Jager said she hadn't thought about the teacher for years until being reminded of him by this article.

The superintendent of District 202 at the time, Allan Alson, said he had no memory of a conversation with Jager's mother but said believes he would have remembered. He said he would have followed up and launched an investigation if such allegations had been brought to his attention.

"I think I had a reputation, in fact, of being very aggressive on adult misbehavior and I absolutely never, ever would have said it was an active or a powerful teacher or somebody that I couldn't go after, that totally does not ring as true" Alson told Patch. He said he wondered if have met with a different administrator at the school.

Alson said during his tenure as superintendent, which began in 1992, the school was swift to take action when it was presented with information of sexual misconduct by teachers, referring several occasions to police during his time with the district.

"Very sadly, there were other cases during my tenure of adult sexual contact with students," Alson said. "My belief is that upon the smallest piece of evidence or rumor my administration and I pursued that very vigorously. That's why the notion of not doing that is pretty upsetting, and it just doesn't ring true that I was given solid information and didn't follow up. Certainly, I never would have characterized any adult as above that law."

The former teacher has not been charged with a crime, and "no filed complaints have been identified," according to Witherspoon.

The former ETHS drama teacher did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the allegations. According to the school, he was employed between 1965 and 1999.

The Evanston Police Department has asked anyone who may have information pertaining to possible criminal conduct to call 847-424-7703.

» UPDATE: District "Deeply Sorry" About ETHS Teacher Sexual Abuse Allegations

_{Top photo: Evanston Township High School | via Patch archives}