Lake Forest Principal Admits to Sexting College Student, Supended

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 18, 2011 5:45PM

Earlier this week a teacher at a Schaumburg Christian school was fired and arrested for allegedly playing with himself in front of students. Today comes news a Lake Forest middle school principal was placed on administrative leave after he admitted to sending lewd texts and photos to a college student two years ago.

John Steinert, principal of Deer Path Middle School, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment through electronic communications in May 2009. At the time, Lake Forest School District 67 issued a reprimand, required Steinert to seek counseling and temporarily froze his salary.

The Tribune's questioning of this punishment led the district to re-visit Steinert's case. District Supt. Harry Griffith told the Tribune, “I am suspending him immediately, and placing him on administrative leave pending further evaluation of the new information that we have. We are going to review this information, which is new to us, and take that into account.”

Griffith said the district based the original punishment on a police report that was heavily redacted and obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. Police records show Steinert sent the student, an intern at the middle school, sexually explicit texts and, at one point, a photo of his penis. (Men, y'all have to stop that.)