Whiteside School employee accused of sexual harassment charged, put on unpaid leave

A Whiteside School District administrator has been charged with two counts of disorderly conduct after he allegedly sent a teacher underwear and a sex toy in the mail.

Whiteside Director of Technology Justin Ballou was put on paid administrative leave from the district March 18, three days after Whiteside Middle School teacher Nicole Webster was granted a stalking no-contact order against him by St. Clair County Circuit Court.

Ballou’s leave was changed to unpaid on Thursday, according to a statement from District 115 Superintendent Mark Heuring. The school district’s policy is to not comment specifically on personnel matters, but Heuring said there wasn’t a specific district policy when it came to paid and unpaid leave.

“Everything is looked at individually and worked on when it comes from the legal side, including when it comes to personnel and when it comes to paid or unpaid leave,” Heuring said.

In Webster’s petition for the no-contact order, she cited three incidents between February and March. She said she received two packages at her home address: one with a fictitious return address label that contained a pair of Victoria’s Secret panties wrapped in plastic and another with a ball gag.

Webster also reported receiving four chandelier bulbs in her mailbox at Whiteside Middle School, in Belleville.

Initially, Ballou was moved from the middle school building to the elementary school, a move that was explicitly allowed by the court order, as long as he did not have any contact with Webster and stayed at least 500 feet away from her home and workplace.

Ballou is being charged with two counts of disorderly conduct, which are class C misdemeanors, for sending the packages to Webster’s home, according to charging documents from the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office. His bail was set at $5,000.

Webster said that while she and Ballou were employed by the same district, they never had any sort of personal relationship.

The initial no-contact order expired on April 5, but was extended through April 5, 2023.

Ballou did not respond to private messages sent over Facebook. As of Friday morning, he is still listed on the district’s website as an employee.

“As an employee of Whiteside District 115 for 17 years, I never expected to be in such an inappropriate and invasive situation with a fellow employee,” Webster said in a statement. “I am once again thankful for the empathy and support of the staff at Whiteside as well as our great working relationship with the board of education.”

Whiteside teachers union goes to school board

About 40 school employees, almost all women, gathered at Whiteside Middle School ahead of Thursday night’s school board meeting. They wore red Whiteside or blue teachers union shirts, but did not carry signs or make any statement about Ballou or Webster as school board members entered the building.

Union Co-President Maura Brueggeman said the union had no comment.

Because of COVID-19, Whiteside School Board meetings have been closed to the public and streamed online. Only the two union representatives were physically present in the open meeting.

The union created a committee, which included Webster, to draft documents to present to the board, according to an internal email obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat. The committee spoke to the school board in closed session Thursday night.

The Belleville News-Democrat was not able to obtain a copy or details of the union-approved documents.