BLOOMINGTON - Sitting in the courtroom Monday for the sentencing of former Unit 5 teacher Jon White on sexual abuse charges involving students, Jennifer Reynolds felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. | White gets 12 more years

Reynolds considers her daughter and several other girls among White's first victims at Colene Hoose Elementary School in Normal. When Reynolds and several other parents went to school officials in the spring of 2004 with concerns they had about White's classroom behavior, they were discouraged from pursuing their complaints, Reynolds recently told The Pantagraph.

"My daughter came home and was telling me things that got me unsettled. Girls were sitting on his foot and rubbing his leg. He picked the girls up and put them in a garbage can," Reynolds said.

McLean County Judge Charles Reynard is expected to rule Tuesday on a sentence for White on charges that the former teacher abused two students at Hoose during the 2004-05 school year. White was sentenced to 48 years in prison earlier this month in Champaign County for abusing eight elementary students in Urbana the year after he left Hoose in 2005.

Dale Heidbreder, the former assistant principal at Hoose, "told us 'I don't know why you're coming to me. You need to take it to the teacher.' He said he trusted this person," Reynolds said.

Reynolds received a phone call from White after their conversation with Heidbreder.

"He talked to me for about 45 minutes. He told me 'this needs to be kept quiet. It could go on my record. It could ruin my career," recalled Reynolds.

Reynolds said White had a habit of keeping female students inside during recess to help with classroom chores, a practice she questioned.

After the call from White, Reynolds said the behavior she considered inappropriate stopped with her daughter.

Heidbreder did not return a call for comment Monday, the first day of White's sentencing hearing on the McLean County charges.

In light of the criminal charges that followed in McLean and Champaign counties, Reynolds questions the response she and Unit 5 officials made to the early concerns at Hoose.

"Unit 5 did nothing. I have a lot of guilt. No amount of consequences will ever get rid of my guilt for not following my gut instinct. I will carry that guilt for the Champaign County kids for the rest of my life," Reynolds said.

The Hoose parent remembers hearing about White's arrest in January 2007 on charges of sexually abusing eight students at an Urbana School.

"I was in complete shock. I seriously didn't think he would be able to teach. I thought he was done after Unit 5 let him go," said Reynolds.

Unit 5 officials have confirmed that White was removed from his Hoose classroom in 2005 and forced to resign.

John Pye, official in charge of human resources for the Normal-based school district, testified at White's sentencing hearing in Urbana that White's resignation came after a mother complained. She reported that White followed her fifth-grade daughter around Hoose and gave the child photographs of an actress he said she resembled.

Unit 5 officials also found adult pornography on White's school computer, said Pye.

The allegations in Urbana surfaced first, triggering the investigation in Normal.

Reynolds contacted Normal police after White's story became public last year. Her daughter was among those who were interviewed by the McLean County Children's Advocacy Center. The child's statements also were included in exhibits submitted in White's case.