In the aftermath of a lawsuit alleging a former faculty member from Riverside Brookfield High School had engaged in an inappropriate physical relationship with a then-student, speakers at a recent public meeting demanded action.
The lawsuit filed in June by the former student and made public last week alleged that the former director of RBTV, Gary Prokes, carried on an inappropriate relationship with her while she was a student at RBHS. The plaintiff has only been identified as Jane Doe to protect her identity. The school district is included in the suit under a negligence allegation.
Four people made public comments at the Sept. 9 meeting of the RBHS District 208 Board of Education chastising the school’s leadership for not preventing the alleged illicit relationship between Prokes and the student.
Among the speakers was Gelse Tkalec of Riverside, who called on Superintendent Kevin Skinkis to resign.
“As a taxpayer, I demand radical changes take place because of the incompetent leadership, lack of follow through and superficial investigation that recently allowed not one but two sexual predators to exist at RB,” said Tkalec, referring to Prokes and former RBHS teacher and coach Dallas Till.
Till was fired and last year settled a lawsuit against him by a former student at Elmwood Park High School who Till had an alleged sexual relationship with while she was student at Elmwood Park before he came to RBHS. Till has not been accused of any misconduct stemming from his time as a teacher and coach at RBHS.
“I demand for the resignation of Dr. Skinkis and all involved in Jane Doe’s case,” Tkalec told the school board. “I demand RB create new comprehensive policies to prevent educator sexual misconduct. I demand that RB creates a new committee consisting of educators, parents and law enforcement to create strict guidelines for interactions between educators and students. Guidelines that are required to be included in yearly trainings and educator handbooks. Policies created to be put in place on how to handle and document boundary crossing or grooming behaviors. I demand that more thorough investigations be conducted before hiring staff that will have any interactions with students.”
Skinkis declined to comment when asked for his reaction to the call for his resignation.
Assistant Superintendent Kristin Smetana, who was the principal of RBHS when the alleged relationship between Prokes and the student occurred, also declined to comment when asked about the demand for resignations or the case.
Liz Buoscio, the mother of two RBHS graduates and a current RBHS senior, also castigated administrators for not stepping in to prevent the alleged sexual abuse of the student.
“My questions to the administrators in charge at that time are, why wasn’t the inappropriate texting and social media messages enough? Why wasn’t the hugging enough? How was an independent study between Prokes and this girl allowed, and why did you protect the predator and not the child?” Buoscio said. “Members of the Board of Education, are you going to hold these administrators accountable for failing to protect this girl?”
The president of the RBHS District 208 school board, Deanna Zalas, did not reply to a request for comment about the remarks of those who spoke at the school board meeting.
Bridget Jakubiak, the mother of a recent graduate and a RBHS freshman, referred to other cases of alleged inappropriate conduct by RBHS staff.
“The board needs to take a deep dive at the culture and the administration and how serious allegations are dealt with at this school,” Jakubiak said. “We need to deal with the culture, and I know we’re up to the task. We have a great principal who’s always respecting students and pushing a more positive approach, but we’ve got to deal with the stuff that is happening within our culture.”
Jakubiak suggested that RBHS put one person in charge of investigating cases of inappropriate conduct by staff to increase accountability.
Trent Ketchmark, a 2015 graduate of RBHS and a resident of Brookfield, delivered perhaps the most scathing remarks. He said that Prokes was verbally abusive and inappropriate as a teacher. He said he stopped taking classes from Prokes because of his conduct.
“I dropped out of RBTV because of Mr. Prokes’s unbelievable behavior,” Ketchmark said. “I watched him time and time again belittle students, bring them to tears, he would be inappropriate. Every inappropriate comment you could think of he would make. The man would have sexual comments; he would touch them inappropriately. He would Snapchat students. There was a period in my life where he would probably send me 15 to 20 Snapchats a day as a student.”
Ketchmark said that Prokes would often make sexual comments and jokes and other inappropriate comments to students.
“He would ask us how quickly we could get him drugs on his desk,” he said. “This is who this was. This man should never have been teaching. He did not act like a teacher at any point; he acted like a child all of the time.”
Ketchmark said that culture at RBHS needs to change.
“I’m here to tell you that this is serious and this needs to stop, and I’m worried that this administration is going to continue to let it happen,” he said. “I think the only way forward is to change.”
Update, Sept. 16, 2025, 12:35 p.m.: This story was updated following further editing to improve grammar.
