Ex-Catholic school teacher pleads guilty to indecent solicitation of a child, grooming

A former teacher for the Diocese of Joliet was sentenced to two and a half years of sex offender probation after he pleaded guilty to indecent solicitation and grooming of someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy but actually was the persona of a member of an online vigilante group.

On Friday, Jeremy Hylka, 46, of Joliet, pleaded guilty to the indecent solicitation of a child and grooming in an April 27, 2021, vigilante sting in which he was captured on video trying to rendezvous with someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy at a McDonald’s restaurant in Joliet.

The 15-year-old boy actually was the persona of Shane Divis, a member of the group Save Our Siblings, who was 19 at the time the group conducted the sting.

Three other charges of traveling to meet a minor, solicitation of a child and another charge of indecent solicitation of a child were dismissed as part of Hylka’s plea agreement.

Hylka will be required to register as a sex offender for at least 10 years, serve six months of home confinement and continue to stay on electronic monitoring that Will County Judge Ken Zelazo placed on him in December.

The video of the 2021 incident shows two men sitting at a table when someone approaches them and announces, “Hey, we’re a group that catches child predators online.”

Hylka flees, is followed and then strips off his shirt. The vigilantes give chase, shouting, “Hey, we got a pedophile!”

At one point, Hylka gets in a vehicle and drives away.

Hylka was a well-known figure in Joliet before he was charged in the indecent solicitation of a child.

He founded the Joliet Weather Center, which has 35,011 Facebook followers. He once taught theology at Joliet Catholic Academy. He also taught at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Lockport until he was fired by the Diocese of Joliet in the wake of the Save Our Siblings video.

Hylka was also recognized in an Everyday Hero campaign by The Herald-News in 2015.

Besides Hylka, the sting operations of Save Our Siblings, along with police investigations, has led to traveling to meet a child and grooming charges in Will County against three other men: John Resedean, 41, of Lockport; Joshua Radetski, 47, of Lake Zurich; and Jacob Schendel, 25, of Cary.

The cases against Resedean and Radetski remain open, while Schendel has pleaded guilty to traveling to meet a child. Schendel was sentenced to two years of sex offender probation.

The Save Our Siblings group’s YouTube page once said its goal is to “expose as many predators as possible and try and discourage other pedos not to meet children.”