New Berlin, Illinois – Yesterday, on January 13, 2020 at 5:00 p.m.,several upset parents attended the New Berlin School Board meeting, which also had an officer on standby, in an attempt to have many questions answered. In an attempt to get their questions answered, they were only told, “its a personnel issue.”

This frustration comes after we released an article identifying New Berlin P.E. Teacher, Ryan O’Donnell, as the subject of a criminal investigation for sexual misconduct. (Click Here to read previous article – New Berlin High School P.E. Teacher under Criminal Investigation for Sexual Misconduct)

Springfield Leaks has obtained a video, which is below, that features a New Berlin Police Officer, along with School Board President, Bill Alexander hardly speaking with parents.

Joe Parga, who posted the video said the following, “So I had to sleep and pray on this cause I didn’t want to say anything out of anger and frustration.. But this video was taken after the board meeting last night. Me and Gretchen showed up as they were saying the pledge of allegiance so I wasn’t able to get on the paper to get my 5 min to speak because they conveniently made the meeting at 5pm making it difficult for people to show up…
So after the board discuss there issues I figured I’d wait till the end and then ask to speak and they told me I couldn’t I could talk via email… so I decided to go over and speak to the police officer on hand (he is the first guy speaking in the video) me and the officer hand a great conversation he was very helpful in the questions I asked him and I greatly appreciate it. So then one of the board members approached me and the officer and instantly played the buddy role with me and told me how I knew him and I could talk to him whenever I wanted to. For one I’ve never meant the guy he just knows me from football, so when I took his advice and talked to him about matters he then repeatedly told me “well I can’t talk about that” so basically he just interrupted the good conversation me and the officer had. I won’t mention the board members name because he wasn’t on the video. However!! As we are talking board president Bill Alexander approached us! He then began some bs about sorry you couldn’t speak we can talk via email… Which there was no reason he couldn’t let me speak at the end just to ask a couple questions l?
So he tells me the same that I can talk to him I began to ask him numerous questions about the situation going on by which he said “he couldn’t talk about it” or “ask mr. Ehrman” but he did say numerous times that the kids should report these instances when they happened (which they did multiple times over an 8 month span) he also said multiple times that he knew nothing about this matter which is a bold face lie him and the other member that approached me said the same thing but they both knew about this!
It wasn’t until I received a round of applause by the group of parents that was in attendance that I realized “dam I should record this” and that’s where the video starts by that time I was already fed up with mr. Alexander’s lack of accountability and saying he knew nothing and acting as if I was an idiot for bringing it to his attention. He repeatedly said its mr. Ehrman that needed to deal with it. Which I find it a lil odd that now he has taken another job?? My problem isn’t even with the president at that time I was more so pissed that this instance was reported over and 8 month span to the HS principal and other staff members and they just recently put the man on a paid leave of absence. So they covered it up months ago in hopes it didn’t happen again and it did over and over.
So that brings me to my questions and great conversation with the officer because by law “any public officials or staff members that fail to report any child abuse accusations is a class A misdemeanor punishable by fine or 1 year in jail 2nd offense is a class 4 felony”. Mr. Alexander says it needed to be reported and it was with his staff members not taking actions and that’s where I have a major issue those staff members are there to protect our kids not to just sweep it under the rug in hopes it will go away… The kids did report it and nothing was done to the guy until he was caught red handed in the girls locker room then they had to do something.. After 8 months of hoping it went away..
In my eyes and maybe in wrong the principle and staff members that was involved need to resign and charges should be filed against them!! But will that happen ?? Hell no because they are going to save each other’s ass!! And as a community we should demand more from the officials that are there to protect our kids! Now they will say “it’s under investigation “ and that may be true? But who is going to hold the staff accountable for not reporting it when it happened months ago?? They let it go so long what would’ve happened if this man would’ve done something more serious to the girls?? It would’ve directly been those staff members fault for not doing something sooner and that’s the problem!!! Now you have our administrator take a new job due to all the heat and is just allowed to walk away instead of being forced to resign because he knows they fucked up! If it was one of their kids it would’ve stop months ago and that’s why they should be held accountable!! Mr. Alexander lied in front of everyone in the room when he said he had no knowledge of what was going on and that’s our president of the board?! What a shame! They are the ones that need to be investigated and held accountable!
And to al the parents that stopped me afterwards to introduce themselves thank you for your support it’s nice to know that there are others out there just as concerned as we are.

P.S. the woman yelling at the end wasn’t Gretchen Whalen she somehow locked herself out of the building and missed it al!!“

IF THE VIDEO DOES NOT LOAD – CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT

There has been only one statement, which was made after our article was published, and that was by New Berlin School President, Alexander. In his statement, Alexander said the following, (Alexander’s Statement is in bold font)”

“As all professional media know, The District is not legally allowed to publicly discuss personnel matters. 

We can,  however, state that we always fully cooperate with investigations from legitimate outside agencies.  We await the results of that investigation. 

All of the District’s actions taken were of the highest level of precautionary measures allowed and in the interest of the safety and security of all our students. We are confident that the District’s precautionary measures have demonstrated we put the safety of our students first.”

Springfield Leaks has received additional information regarding the sexual misconduct investigation that is currently being investigated by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a source close to the investigation, a Sheriff’s Detective reached out to Ryan on December 30th, 2019. The Sheriff’s Detective did attempt to question Ryan about the incident, but Ryan declined to answer the Detective’s questions.

At this time, we have been told that this is an active and ongoing investigation, and nothing can be released at this time.

Stay tuned to Springfield Leaks for further updates.