School janitor accused of secretly recording students in locker room

FOX 32 NEWS - At Chaney Monge Junior High in Crest Hill, the arrest of a custodian has set off alarms for many parents. Ryan Thompson, 27, is charged with a single count of unlawful video recording.

He's accused of using his cell phone to shoot videos of students in the locker room from behind a closet door. Prosecutor said the recordings were made between February 1st and March 11th of this year.

“We don't know exactly what was videotaped, I mean was it, this man's had access to the locker rooms, bathroom areas, things where students are changing, not only our students, but also other schools in the local area come for sports events,” said parent Brianne Foschi.

Police say there were no images of naked students and that they have only discovered a handful of videos.  A relative discovered the videos on Thompson's cell phone last night and called police.

“We don't really have a motive at this time, nothing that he would say why he did it,” said Edward Clark, Crest Hill Interim Police Chief.

The school superintendent said that Thompson has been removed from his position, but parents want more information after being alerted to the arrest by a robocall from the principal.

“As soon as I got off work I came up here because I expected there was going to be a line of people wanting answers and as you can see, the superintendent's nowhere to be found and neither is the principal,” said parent Jennifer Chung.

Police were at Thompson's Lockport home earlier Tuesday looking for other possible evidence.

“A search warrant was conducted, we do have electronic devices from the home, we have some other devices that he had and those will be analyzed in the next couple of weeks,” said Chief Clark.

Parents are wondering just what was Thompson up to?

“Every morning and every time I would drop my kids off and pick them up I would see the janitor you know putting the cones up and I would see him going to the back and I always thought that was a little bit off about him,” said parent Jana Graf.

Thompson was ordered held in the Wil County Jail on $25,000 bail.