Trinity Christian School Teacher Charged With Grooming Teen Now Free on Bond

SHOREWOOD, IL — A Trinity Christian School science teacher locked up for allegedly attempting to seduce a teenage girl with inappropriate text messages posted bail Saturday evening and was released from jail.

Lemuel Elechicon, 51, faces a single count of grooming. His bond was set Saturday morning at $100,000 and he posted $10,000 to get out of the Will County jail.

The Shorewood police arrested Elechicon Friday. The parents of a 13-year-old girl alerted the law to alarming texts Elechicon had sent to their daughter, police said. The parents learned of the texts from the parents of one of their daughter’s friends, said Shorewood Deputy Police Chief Jason Barten.

Elechicon was arrested within a week of the girl’s parents contacting police, Barten said. Elechicon’s texts to the teen date back to January, he said.

The teen also “acknowledged some inappropriate contact” with Elechicon, Barten said.

Barten declined to answer when asked if the 13-year-old girl was one of Elechicon’s students at Trinity Christian School. The school is under the jurisdiction of the Shorewood Police Department. Elechicon’s Crest Hill home is not. Elechicon’s church, Ridgewood Baptist in Joliet, where he said on his Educator Pages page that he is “currently involved in the junior high school and high school youth group” also does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Shorewood police.

Trinity Christian was notified of Elechicon’s arrest the day he was taken into custody, school board Chairman Frederick S. Alexander said in an email.

“We are working with police to investigate the situation,” Alexander said in the email. “Mr. Elechicon has been placed on administrative leave and will remain on leave until the investigation is complete.”

Elechicon’s teacher web page said he was born in the Philippines and came to America with his family when he was in the sixth grade.

“By faith, Christ saved me from my sins when I was in high school,” Elechicon said on his page.

Elechicon’s page says he attended Bible school in Iowa, that he has worked in “Christian school ministry” for 26 years, and is in his 12th year at Trinity Christian School.

On his teacher web page, Elechicon says he teaches creation through “Biblical glasses” as part of his science course.

“You will learn a solid creation-based worldview and that, contrary to popular belief, operational science runs counter to the idea of evolution and ‘millions of years,’” Elechicon says of his creationism curriculum. “The facts of nature, rightly interpreted, provide an irrefutable case for the accuracy and trustworthiness of the book that claims to be the inspired word of the Creator Himself!"

Lemuel Elechicon | image via Will County Sheriff's Department