H.S. Teacher Returned to Work Amid Police Probe: Report

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL – District 155 officials knew of a police probe into Matthew Fralick, a Crystal Lake Central High School teacher arrested earlier this month on felony grooming charges, back in August. Hundreds of pages of documents and e-mails provided to the Northwest Herald by the school district reveal that a two-week internal investigation conducted at the beginning of the school year did not “substantiate the allegations” brought against Fralick. Fralick, who was briefly placed on leave during the school district’s probe between Aug. 16 and Aug. 28, 2018, was told by Jay Sargeant, assistant superintendent of human resources, that he’d be allowed to return to the classroom on Aug. 30, according to the Northwest Herald.

Fralick, a former girls’ basketball and football coach, was allowed to stay on through the fall semester, teaching health education and drivers education courses to Crystal Lake Central High School students, according to the Northwest Herald.

Fralick, of the 1300 block of Cunat Court, Apt. 1C, in Lake in the Hills, was arrested on Feb. 1 on the felony grooming charge and has been on paid leave since. He is accused of talking inappropriately to a teenage girl in an online chat room and trying to get the girl, who lived out of state, to come to Illinois to perform a sex act, according to court documents obtained by the Northwest Herald.

On Oct. 12, about a month after Fralick returned from his first paid leave, he thanked two teachers in an e-mail for their help in creating an abstinence and birth control plan for his students. Other topics covered during his fall health classes included human sexuality, anatomy, reproduction, sexually transmitted disease and relationships, according to information obtained through the Northwest Herald FOIA request.

Fralick earned a base salary of $102,026 with $4,807 in retirement enhancements and $15,350 in other benefits.

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