PAXTON, Ill. (WCIA) — Three complaints of inappropriate touching and sexual assault surfaced against a Paxton-Buckley-Loda District 210 teacher and volunteer coach on Thursday.

WCIA’s partners with the Ford County Chronicle reported that Superintendent Travis Duley released 18 pages of documents in response to a FOIA the Chronicle submitted. The documents included three separate complaints against Robert Pacey, an elementary school STEM and technology teacher and volunteer junior high cross country coach at the district.

The oldest of the three complaints was submitted on Sept. 14, 2021, from a parent whose child was a member of the Junior High Cross Country team. The parent alleged that in the previous two weeks of when the email was sent, their daughter told them some “concerning things,” including that Pacey had hit one of the athletes on the head.

In that same complaint, the parent added that while discussing this with their daughter, the daughter said at her last cross country meet, Pacey had also hit her on the head. She added that Pacey “told me if I wasn’t quiet, he was going to tape my mouth shut.”

The documents also include a Title IX Formal Complaint of sexual harassment, which was received by the district on March 21, 2025. The complaint alleges that Pacey groomed a minor under the age of 13 while working as a STEM teacher at the Clara Peterson Elementary School. It also notes that at the time of the complaint, Pacey was a coach for the junior high cross country team.

In the most recent complaint, a concerned parent sent an email to Duley on April 8, 2025. The parent said that their daughter has attended PBL schools for her entire life and had run-ins with Pacey both in 2019 and 2020.

“Back then he was touching her inappropriately along with a group of her friends that I have spoken with individually and they tell the same story,” the parent said in the email.

On April 7, 2025, Duley sent a letter to PBL district families, notifying them that an elementary school teacher in the school district had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations about the teacher’s conduct during the 2021-22 school year.

The redacted documents state that Pacey graduated from PBL High School in 2004 and from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2008. They also state that he had been an assistant cross country coach since 2008 as well as a Recognized Track and Field Official through the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) since 2005.

Currently, he serves as a Ward 3 alderman on the Paxton City Council, as well as a member of a few other civic organizations, the Chronicle confirmed.

In a statement shared through the Illinois Education Association on Thursday, Pacey said he is “deeply troubled” by the allegations that have been made against him.

“I can say without a doubt I have done nothing wrong,” Pacey continued. “I have dedicated my life to supporting and serving our students, our schools and community. Thank you to all of my friends and neighbors who have been so incredibly supportive during this challenging time. I am looking forward to the investigation being completed as quickly as possible, returning to work and putting this all behind us.”

On Wednesday, the district’s school board met for about two hours in a closed session to hear testimony on a complaint made against an employee, but that meeting did not result in any disciplinary action.

As of Thursday, Pacey is still employed by the Paxton-Buckley-Loda School District, Duley confirmed with the Chronicle. However, he declined to comment further.

No criminal charges have been filed against Pacey at this time.

To read more on this situation, visit the Ford County Chronicle’s website.