KENOSHA, Wis. — An Indian Trail High School student who had read Kenosha County Eye’s reporting about former KUSD math teacher Steven Edward Telkamp wrote an op-ed about the allegations that followed him from the Mukwonago Area School District. That student’s writing made its way to school administrators, who learned of a connection between the student author and a female student at Bradford High School. Bradford Principal J.J. Kotarek was then directed to investigate whether Telkamp was engaging in inappropriate contact with that student. What followed was an expanding investigation, statements from students, corroborated allegations of inappropriate behavior toward female students and, ultimately, Telkamp’s firing.

It is a striking conclusion to a story KCE and Mukwonago father Ken Sallee began warning Kenosha Unified School District about nearly two years earlier. Shortly after KUSD hired Telkamp in the summer of 2024, Sallee contacted district officials about allegations involving his then-14-year-old daughter in Mukwonago. KCE separately investigated and reported extensively on Telkamp’s history. KUSD responded by placing Telkamp on administrative leave, reviewing the Mukwonago investigation and speaking directly with officials from his former district. After doing all of that, KUSD made the decision to keep him.

Superintendent Jeffrey Weiss acknowledged that entire sequence under oath during Telkamp’s April 20, 2026 termination hearing. Weiss testified that shortly after Telkamp was hired, KUSD received emails from a parent in his former district detailing concerns about inappropriate behavior involving his daughter. The district placed Telkamp on leave, had numerous conversations with Mukwonago administrators and reviewed that district’s investigation. KUSD nevertheless determined Telkamp would remain employed. Weiss said Telkamp was moved to eSchool because the 2024-25 school year had already begun. He spent that school year at eSchool before KUSD assigned him to Bradford High School as a math teacher for 2025-26.

KCE had already reported why those warnings mattered. Records from Mukwonago showed Telkamp had been reprimanded following allegations that included prolonged staring, winking, touching a student’s hair or shoulders and making a comment about another student’s clothing being “too tight.” In a two-page letter of reprimand dated March 22, 2024, Mukwonago officials addressed Telkamp’s conduct and directed him regarding appropriate boundaries with students.

Less than three weeks later, on April 11, 2024, Mukwonago placed Telkamp on paid administrative leave as the district conducted another investigation. That action came after allegations that Telkamp had failed to follow administrators’ directives concerning contact with a student.

Mukwonago later entered into a resignation agreement and release with Telkamp. Rather than Telkamp simply returning to the classroom following the investigations, his employment with Mukwonago ended through that agreement. KCE and Sallee eventually sued the district to obtain additional investigative records and prevailed, forcing the release of documents and resulting in the district paying legal fees.

KUSD knew about that history. Its own personnel records show the district placed Telkamp on paid administrative leave on Sept. 5, 2024, while investigating concerns connected to Mukwonago. The district subsequently ended that leave and ordered him back to work effective Oct. 31, 2024.

At the time, KUSD publicly maintained that its review had uncovered no evidence preventing Telkamp from continuing his employment. Rather than immediately returning Telkamp to a traditional classroom, however, KUSD moved him to eSchool for the remainder of the 2024-25 school year, seemingly keeping him physically away from students while allowing him to remain employed by the district. Weiss later testified under oath that the reason for the eSchool placement was that the school year had already begun. Whatever KUSD’s stated reason for the assignment, the practical result was that Telkamp spent that school year outside a traditional, in-person classroom.

The following school year, KUSD put him back inside Bradford High School, once again working face-to-face with students. The district did not publicly announce that Telkamp had been returned to Bradford.

Then came the Indian Trail student.

KUSD Chief Human Resources Officer Kevin Neir testified under oath that an Indian Trail student authored an op-ed concerning Telkamp and his prior conduct in Mukwonago. The student cited several sources, including reporting by Kenosha County Eye. According to Neir, the writing came to the attention of the Indian Trail principal because there was a relationship between the student who wrote it and a student at Bradford. Bradford administrators were alerted, and Kotarek was directed to investigate whether Telkamp was having inappropriate contact with that student.

That initial inquiry produced statements from five students. Because of the seriousness of what was being reported, Human Resources took over and expanded the investigation. Telkamp was again placed on paid administrative leave. Neir testified that the district routinely removes an employee from the workplace in a matter of that nature while HR conducts a more extensive investigation.

The investigation produced allegations strikingly similar to the conduct KUSD had already been warned about from Mukwonago.

Female students reported that Telkamp got too close to them, touched their shoulders and made inappropriate comments or jokes. One student alleged that Telkamp put his head on her shoulder. Neir testified that allegations involving Telkamp touching female students’ shoulders were corroborated by other students. He said other students also corroborated allegations that Telkamp got too close to female students and made inappropriate comments or jokes.

Neir also testified during the hearing about allegations that a female student believed Telkamp stared at her breasts to such an extent that she felt she needed to wear a sweater in his classroom. Other students reported that they believed Telkamp stared at them.

Telkamp denied many of the allegations. In his statement, he denied placing his head on a student’s neck or shoulder, staring at a student’s chest, rubbing students’ shoulders, touching students’ hair, making off-color jokes or standing too close to students. He did acknowledge tapping a student on the head with rolled-up paper and placing his hand on a sleeping student’s shoulder to wake her. Telkamp also acknowledged that several students had reported that he made them uncomfortable, while saying that was never his intent.

Not every student complained about Telkamp. KUSD’s investigation included students who reported having no problems with him. But after reviewing the totality of the interviews and student statements, Neir testified that KUSD believed its charges were accurate and supported by the evidence. He said the investigation did not support Telkamp’s characterization that the allegations were made up, concluded Telkamp violated district policies and determined the violations warranted a recommendation that he be fired.

Perhaps the most consequential testimony came when Neir compared what KUSD discovered at Bradford with the warning Telkamp had already received in Mukwonago.

KUSD had obtained the Mukwonago reprimand and Telkamp’s written response. In that response, Telkamp acknowledged understanding concerns about his behavior, accepted responsibility for his actions and indicated that he would improve. During the termination hearing, Neir told the board that, roughly a year and a half later, Telkamp was doing “those exact same behaviors with our students.”

Neir also testified that he confronted Telkamp about how the situation looked in light of what had happened in Mukwonago, asking him whether he could understand the appearance that he had simply moved somewhere else and continued the behavior in a different venue. According to Neir, Telkamp acknowledged that he could understand how it could be viewed that way.

Weiss likewise acknowledged the significance of the similarities when questioned by a school board member. The superintendent described the Mukwonago allegations and the new KUSD allegations in the context of a “pattern of behavior.” Weiss testified that grooming, under the concept used by DPI, did not necessarily have to be sexual and that Telkamp’s behavior remained on a continuum of inappropriate conduct. When questioned about Telkamp’s contention that the allegations were not grounded in fact, Weiss said KUSD’s investigation showed differently.

Telkamp vigorously disputed the characterization of his conduct and argued that publicity surrounding the Mukwonago allegations affected how KUSD students perceived him. He denied sexually touching students, attempting to establish inappropriate relationships, privately communicating with students or attempting to spend time alone with them. He said rumors surrounding him made it difficult for him to be evaluated objectively.

But KUSD’s own investigation did not accept the proposition that the complaints were simply manufactured. Neir was specifically asked whether the evidence supported Telkamp’s characterization that all of it had been made up.

“It did not,” Neir testified.

Telkamp submitted a resignation rather than contest the allegations through the hearing, while specifically saying his resignation should not be interpreted as an admission of wrongdoing. KUSD administration nevertheless continued presenting its termination case.

KUSD ultimately terminated Telkamp effective April 20, 2026. District records released afterward describe a progression that began with the warnings from Mukwonago, continued through KUSD’s decision to retain Telkamp and eventually culminated in new concerns involving students at Bradford.

Now there is another development.

As of Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, Telkamp’s Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction record lists his lifetime teaching license as “Under Investigation.” The DPI record identifies Telkamp as holding a T001 teacher license, originally valid beginning July 1, 2020. The record also lists his most recent background check as having been submitted in 2022.

Records subsequently released by KUSD show the district reported Telkamp’s termination to DPI. In doing so, KUSD described misconduct involving inappropriate and unwanted touching of students and reported that its investigation resulted in findings that Telkamp violated district policy and employee handbook provisions.

Most significantly, KUSD itself told DPI that similar behavior involving Telkamp had previously occurred in the Mukwonago Area School District.

That brings the story full circle.

KCE and Ken Sallee warned KUSD in 2024. KUSD did not merely hear a rumor. District officials placed Telkamp on leave, contacted Mukwonago administrators, reviewed what had happened there and then made an informed decision to keep him. Telkamp spent the following school year at eSchool, seemingly removed from physical contact with students in a traditional classroom, before KUSD returned him to Bradford.

Then a KUSD student read reporting about the very history the district already knew.

She wrote about it. Her writing reached administrators. An investigation followed. Students were interviewed. Allegations were corroborated. KUSD concluded Telkamp violated its policies. Its own human resources chief eventually testified that Telkamp was engaging in “those exact same behaviors with our students.”

KCE and Sallee warned KUSD about what had happened in Mukwonago. KUSD kept Telkamp anyway.

We told you so.