Source: nbcchicago.com 10/22/24
When John heard the news on a recent Friday, it hit him hard: Elliott ____, a former Chicago public schoolteacher and John’s former colleague, had been arrested and charged with three counts of child exploitation, after allegedly exposing himself to three girls – ages 10, 9, and 7.
Eight years ago, John – who does not want to be identified by his real name – was one of more than two dozen victims recorded by Elliott after he hid a motion-activated camera in an employee bathroom at Ogden Elementary School on Chicago’s Near North Side, according to a Chicago Police Department incident report.
Police said the camera was pointed at the toilet, and – over several days – caught several employees and a disabled student using the bathroom.
“I felt violated,” John said. “I know my colleagues felt violated. It was extremely disturbing for many of us, and very hard to get over. I personally had to seek therapy for it and had a very difficult time using the public bathrooms – and I would hyperventilate even thinking about it.”
Elliott was eventually convicted of 26 counts of unauthorized videorecording. A single count of child pornography – involving the child who was videotaped — was dismissed because the parents reportedly did not want their child to have to testify in court. And because it was, Elliott was not made to register as a sex offender, because – while child pornography is considered a sex offense — unauthorized videorecording is not.
“I did not feel like what it was being labelled as, was ‘illegal videotaping,’” John said. “It’s a sexual act. You don’t have to touch someone for a sexual act. You are doing something sexually – you are videotaping…. and by watching it, he [Elliott ] gets some kind of sexual pleasure out of that.”
As it turns out, Illinois law also does not consider several crimes, involving voyeurism, to be sex crimes. For example, when Elliott was arrested at Ogden School in 2016, NBC 5 Investigates found he’d been convicted of a “Peeping Tom” offense in his hometown of Normal when he was 18 years old and caught spying on two sisters in his neighborhood. But a “Peeping Tom” conviction does not require someone to register as a sex offender.