Two former students are suing USD 232, arguing the district didn’t do enough to protect them against the predatory actions of an award-winning middle school teacher who was later convicted of sex crimes against students.
The two lawsuits, one filed on Dec. 5, 2025, and the other on Feb. 11, both in Johnson County District Court, allege the district failed to take action against Keil Hileman despite numerous “red flags” that he was a danger to students.
Hileman taught for decades in the district, as a social studies teacher at Monticello Trails Middle School in Shawnee, as well as at Mill Valley High School.
In the lawsuit, the two students, identified by their initials as S.K. and R.D., allege that the school district failed to implement and enforce appropriate safeguards and allowed Hileman to have inappropriate and unsupervised access to students, which enabled his abuses to occur.
“The District allowed Hileman to operate an unstructured, unsupervised educational program that allowed prolonged one-on-one student contact behind closed doors, conditions that directly enabled (S.K.)’s abuse,” the latest lawsuit says.
In November 2024, Hileman was sentenced to a total of 24 months in prison for two felony counts of attempted unlawful sexual relations with students. Court records show the abuse occurred between June 2017 and October 2022.
Hileman was released from prison on Jan. 16 and now resides in De Soto, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s Sex Offender Registry.
Both USD 232 and attorneys representing the two former students declined to comment when reached by the Post on Thursday.
Hileman taught in USD 232 for nearly 30 years
Hileman’s tenure in USD 232 lasted from 1993 to 2022.
During that time, he was a highly decorated educator, teaching social studies and an elective course titled Museum Connections at Monticello Trails Middle School, which was centered around a classroom museum of some 50,000 real-life historical artifacts.
He also taught an Archaeology and Artifacts course to Mill Valley High School students.
His courses earned him state and national plaudits, including the Scholastic Kansas Teacher of the Year in 2004. He was also named a nominee for National Life Group’s Lifechanger of the Year award in 2018.
That same year, he and his classroom museum were featured on an NBC News report.
During that time, both lawsuits allege, Hileman displayed a pattern of “red flags,” including targeting vulnerable students, earning their trust through personal attention and emotional manipulation, isolating them from peers and adults and blurring professional boundaries through inappropriate personal communication.
The district knew of or had reason to know his patterns of grooming students, the lawsuits say.
“The District failed to take effective remedial action and continued to employ Hileman and placed him in a position of power and trust over children,” the lawsuits say.
“[A] full, thorough, complete investigation should have been done to prevent harm and danger to students like Plaintiff, but the District failed to do this, and its employee continued to act as a predator against its own students, including Plaintiff,” the lawsuits also say.
“Multiple warnings”
Both lawsuits detail ways in which the former students say Hileman was allowed to manipulate them.
He created an “isolating and unsafe classroom environment” by covering the classroom windows, locking the door and disabling the phone and intercom system, the lawsuits say.
He encouraged students to volunteer in his Museum Connections classroom outside of normal school hours, which allowed him to meet alone with students with little oversight.
He would cross personal boundaries with students, including giving them rides without their parents’ permission and sending inappropriate messages.
At one point in 2017, Hileman sent a Facebook friend request to S.K., which the student’s parent, who was also a district employee, found inappropriate, S.K.’s lawsuit says.
When the girl’s father reported it to the school administration, “He was informed that Hileman was permitted to ‘friend’ students on social media because he was attempting to qualify for a teaching award that involved online interaction with students.”
The lawsuits also say Hileman changed the lock on his classroom, giving him exclusive access to it.
“Despite multiple warnings, the District not only failed to restrict Hileman’s access to students and monitor his conduct, it continued to promote him as an award-winning, exemplary educator, enhancing his credibility and authority with students and parents,” one of the lawsuits stated.
In a filing responding to the earlier lawsuit by R.D. in December, the district denied the ex-student’s allegations.
Hileman was convicted in 2024
Originally charged in October 2022, Hileman was accused of engaging in “consensual lewd fondling or touching with a person 16 or more years old” between June 2017 and October 2022, according to court records.
At least two victims were listed in court documents.
Originally charged with six counts of unlawful sexual relations, Hileman reached a plea agreement that amended two of the charges to the less severe felonies of attempted unlawful sexual relations and dismissed the remaining counts.
Hileman was sentenced in Johnson County District Court on Nov. 6, 2024.
At that hearing, one of his victims addressed him, stating that she had known him since she was 5. She looked up to him, the victim said in court, and Hileman used that trust to groom her.
“You told me not to tell anybody,” she said, talking to Hileman during the sentencing hearing. “Then you started calling and texting my mom. How dare you hurt her, too. How dare you hurt my family. I hate you.”
Both lawsuits ask for damages from effects of the crimes
Both lawsuits assert that the plaintiffs suffered damages including pain and suffering, mental anguish and a diminished capacity to enjoy life.
They both ask for a judgment of $75,000 in compensatory damages and a jury trial.
