Shawnee middle school teacher accused of having sex with students appears in court

By Andy Alcock

Click here for updates on this story

    OLATHE, Kansas (KMBC) — A former Kansas Teacher of the Year made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon after being accused of having sex with students.

Keil Hileman, 53, faces six counts of unlawful sexual relations. Hileman made his court appearance by video from the Johnson County jail in Olathe. He asked for a court-appointed attorney to defend him.

According to court records, five of the six counts involve sex acts with the same student, with those incidents occurring between June 2017 and July 2018.

The sixth and most recent accusation involves another student with an incident taking place sometime between Sept. 3 and Oct. 4 of this year.

Hileman has been a teacher at Monticello Trails Middle School in Shawnee since 1995. In addition to teaching middle school students, Hileman has also taught an honors class for juniors and seniors from both Mill Valley and De Soto high schools.

Court records state the two students involved in the sex charges were both older than 16 at the time of the incidents.

“I think everybody is shocked. You never want to hear it when it’s this close to home. It’s devastating,” said Tamalee Baker.

She said all four of her children have had Hileman as a teacher, including twins who currently attend Mill Valley High School. Baker said she’s spoken to her children about the accusations against their teacher.

“It’s a discussion you never want to have, especially with your own children,” she said.

Hileman has built a museum in his classroom with over 20,000 pieces. For his efforts, he was named 2004 Kansas Teacher of the Year. That same year, he was one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year.

He was inducted into the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Kansas City, Kansas, Community College in 2010.

Dolly Parton also honored Hileman with the “Chasing Rainbows Award” in 2010 given to a teacher who’s overcome adversity.

More recently, for the 2019-20 school year, he was nationally recognized as a LifeChanger of the Year nominee. A spokesman said Hileman’s biography from that organization’s website has been removed after the charges against him.

“My heart breaks for the victims and just everybody involved,” Baker said.

“I think it’s just horrible. I’m glad the school acted as quickly as they did when they found out,” said Jimmy Sparks, who has two granddaughters in the De Soto school system.

Hileman was removed from the school as a teacher once the accusations against him were made known to administrators. He’s been placed on leave pending further action by the school board.

Hileman would need to pay a $250,000 bond to get out of the Johnson County jail.

He’s scheduled to be in court Wednesday.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.