Who cares? At least he's not gay or a reporter for the MSM.

Who cares? I think its weird he is so open about it when he works with teens. I hope they remove them. My teen son had a sub a minooka and came home telling me how that sub made sexual inuendos the whole class. The next day they told their teacher and that guy has not been back. Anonymous I really hope you're not a parent.

well being that most "Cheer Shoes" are worn by Minors...In SCHOOLS....me i think he needs to be removed....is he going to be staring at the kids to satisfy his fetish? and not doing what he is supposed to...this guy reminds me of the "Joliet toe sucker"

...this guy reminds me of the "Joliet toe sucker
Ok, you cannot write this and NOT tell the story! I gotta hear this one.

It is weird that he is so open about it but there are so many other things to concern ourselves with at West. Education should be the number one priority not a temporary band teacher. Do you look into all of the subs as you have looked at this young man?

What has he done wrong he likes womens shoes college cheerleaders where shoes. Tell Me what he has done that is against the law

West sider...... You should look at all the subs. Anyone dealing with your children. Predators come in all shapes, sizes, and occupations.

Jeg they should be looked at by the school I don't feel this is worthy of branding this young man with a scarlet letter!

Get rid of this wierdo before he ends up acting on his "shoe fetish".

I, for one, am so glad I overlooked all the unimportant goin on's in the world to read this... for craps sake...move on. Repeat after me...NOT GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. no one can control what can happen. This man has done nothing wrong. People are simply afraid if things they don't understand. Not understanding something does not make that something a crime

Matt what reason is there to get rid of him he has not broken the law

I think this is similar to the idea of firing a teacher because she onced danced at a topless club. It is not just about the intent or threat of intent to do harm to a child, it is about having nothing that you can bring in and invite as a teacher that could influence kids OR give them something to disrupt them. They have enough of that- teachers are supposed to be a safe place of influence.
Teachers are held up to a higher standard because of that influence. If one parent found this, any kid with an iphone and facebook can find it (and probably has by now too.) It is kind of like parenting- you can do whatever you want until you have kids. And then, it is no longer about you anymore, so you have to do whatever you want a whole hell of a lot more carefully now. This guy had no business putting all of his deepest sexually charged ideas for the world to see, if he wanted to work with kids.

I do.THREE. and one is disabled. A huge scare. She couldnt defend herself! But....i cannot control my neighbor, i can, however, equipt my kids with knowledge and awareness. I cannot live with thinking that every other person is going to hurt my child. Im not ignorant by any means to the wolves my friend...

Yea the toe sucker broke in my parents house when I was little! My parents were at work and it was jus me and my older siblings and he was trying to get through the basement door and just so happen the neighboor got off early and saw him and called the police! This guy pushed his hands through the door it was blood everywhere in broad day light at that! Creep

Now that this is public, he will likely have to resign or will be released for being an ineffective teacher. None of his students will take him seriously at this point.

There should be a ban on those types of shoes.

I'm one of his students, he has never done anything wrong, has never looked at us a wired way, he was nice kewl and we knew nothing about his personal life because he kept it personal. He did nothing wrong. He didn't deserve to get fired. I learned a lot from him and he was a good teacher. His personal life is non of ur business and u need to leave him alone. He broke no laws. All I u need to grow the hell up

I bet u have secrets and would u like it if there were everywhere? How about if ur life was hein ruined because of something so stupid? Y'all need to back off

I know I will probably get jumped all over for this one. Trombonegirl97, they ought to take a look at your English teacher next.

maybe the parent who is cyber stalking him and has a list of his profiles is the one with the real problem?

I'm well aware that my English wasn't the best there but I was typing fast and I really don't care. Either way I got my point so it doesn't matter. Just all of u back off of him. He didn't do wrong by anyone. Who cares what he likes? He doesn't deserve this anymore than u do

No thanks- I 100% agree with u!

Trombonegirl97- that was so much better that your point came across with no static. There is serious power in the written word- YOU have power in the written word, as long as it is written well. You want to be heard? Write the school board and get your classmates to write something with you. Even if you don't change something, you will be heard and your teacher will know he was valued. And ALWAYS care when you write something. It doesn't have to be flawless, but if you don't care what you you sound like when you write, your reader won't care when reading it.

My daughter was one of the students under his direction. He is harmless and a very sweet guy. She is safe with him, her ugg's may not be. But who cares!!! Good golly people, they are shoes! He is an excellent teacher!! It is stuff like this in society that destroys a person and their future!

I still believe he shouldn't be teaching. If I was a girl in that class id feel uncomfortable.

I have not heard of a single of the kids being uncomfortable, and I volunteer directly with the whole bunch and have talk with Mr. Maro on many occasions. They understand he looks at shoes, not their body. Alot of the students have shoe fetishes. Look on their facebook and instagrams. Tons of shoe pictures. Look on Pinterest, tons of shoe pictures. Perspective people. He is harmless and does not deserve this nonsense anymore than I should be taken under a microscope for my fingernail polish collection.

A lot of people use different Alias's on different sites. It doesent mean a thing I heard about this on Scot Slocums radio show and he feels the Guy did nothing wrong but the mom and the patch were out of line. And like Scott I hope he gets a lawyer for action against the patch and the mom.

Scott Slocum was right.

Just found a comment from this guy on my daughter's Instagram. It is very obvious that she is a Joliet Central Cheerleader so therefore it should be obvious to him also that she is under 18. No grown man, especially a teacher, should be making contact with a child.

Ugh, I don't know why this isn't working and keeps getting cut off. I'll try removing the emoticon character things. This is the text of his Instagram profile (which is public):
"cheerlover88 I am original. I do NOT ask for pics of your shoes! Love me? Hate me? You know you wanna follow me! Kik: cheer_lover88 Feel free to creep!"

We got to love over zealous parents in a witch hunt. Did anyone actually verify this information or just take the word of a parent that might not like the young man.

Do you know any 24 year old man that does not think cheerleaders are hot? Come on there are far worse things going on in our schools.

How about we look up everyone who commented here on DB I can guarantee we could find something to judge you all on

All the bleeding hearts need to wake up! We don't need teachers dumb enough to post their fetishes online teaching our children. Be glad that someone brought this up before a innocent student got hurt.

But you are judging. Do you have proof in your hands that he broke the law or you just taking the word of what you read. Oh wait its on the internet it Must be true

If he is gutsy enough to publicly contact underage girls what would he do to one privately?

Didn't say he broke any laws. I said get rid of him before he does.

Waynette you have pictures on your page in a bar does that make you a drunk maybe you shouldn't be driving show us the proof what he said to your daughter

Just ignore drummer. He probably doesn't have children, so he is clueless.

There are pictures on my profile in a bar because I am a bartender. You will not however see anywhere on my profile where i contact underage children.

He likes women shoes what is wrong with that again Joseph your judging. Show us proof of what he did wrong just say it show the proof

Oh but I do have kids Matt so your clueless. About me ye without sin cast the first stone.

Oh, now your quoting Jesus....

He likes all women's shoes

You have a problem. With that matt

Why don't you ask him joeseph

I'm done talking with you drummer boy....

Watch your language about me Matt I'm not a boy

Now you say its an open discussion on everyonees opinion but earlier I was. Told I'm wrong on my opinion. Where is your proof he contacted an underage girl just because someone said he did but didn't show proof. The article did say he did nothing wrong have your facts straight and proof before. You say things

You have proof he contacted kids prove it

I would love to show proof that he commented on my daughters Instagram account but I have no way of posting it here. I am very thankful Joliet Patch brought this to my attention. I was not aware till I was telling her about this story that he had commented on her picture. Thank goodness she didn't respond to him. Who knows what could have happened.

Trying to figure out a way of doing that without posting my daughters information.

I have seen a whole lot of heresay. Not any proof of wrong doing. I've seen these lynch mobs destroy innocent people. Even to the point of suicide. Take heed what you believe and remember innocent till proven guilty. This is what our country is built upon. Don't take heresay as unequivocal proof.

all you people who have a set of balls on this site badgering him, why not hold a meeting at the school and confront this person face-2-face and ask him your questions?

SHUT UP. None of you know how he is and have no right to judge him. Now instead of wasting your lifes on here get off... and get on with your life. I am also one of his students and i had always felt normal around him. I am sure that we all have some sort of secret or some sort of "turn-on"! So until your hands are clean and you have no dirt on your tail, please dont talk.

Personally, the idea of "innocent or guilty" is irrelevant here- he has not been charged with anything. The question is "should he be working at a school teaching children?".

Lets all just hope we dont read or hear anything more of this in the future... i have to agree on the fact that Bad Judgement plays a very large roll in this and should be used as a REMINDER of what not to doif you work with children. God gave us all brains...unfortunately he didnt give us all direction on how to use them....

And...i have no dirt on my tail...nor do I have a tail..therefore, im not a dirtytail....or a tail with dirt..or a dirty tailor. Wait. I might have a spec of dust. My friends call me....dustytail

I am slowly losing respect for The Patch. Why did you even print this story? Who cares what this man does on his own time? How do you plan on repairing his image that has been destroyed? How will this story effect his future and career? How bout you go dig up some dirt on "The woman, who has asked to remain unnamed because her children are District 204 students." and what her fetishes may be? One is probably destroying people's lives. Wonder how she would feel? He has not done anything wrong. Lesson to all...be careful what you post on the internet. SMH...

The flickr that Patch linked to may not even be Maro's. The account directly referenced in this article has a twitter listed on it as "cheerlover80". However, the person that owns this twitter is named Matt, which means the person who owns the flickr is probably also named Matt and is not Maro. This Matt person even posted on his twitter that he finds it funny people are thinking he is some band director in Illinois. Sounds like patch may have royally screwed up here, and may want to lawyer up, too, if they are reporting some false info...

The man is a teacher and what he did on his own time was reach out to underage teenage girls with inappropriate remarks. Whether its legal not a grown man has no business remarking on a teenage girls post
This is not a made up story. He ruined his own reputation.

@facts You know he did this...how?

The real problem is this teacher is 24 and most of us are well over 40. He grew up in a digital age as did the kids in his class. It's "normal" to post everything you do think or feel. People in the digital revolution don't have a filter of any kind that says it's not OK to share everything. This teacher is YOUNG and while he grew up loving and integrating online tools into his life, there have been ZERO ethics classes about using the internet and how to be a responsible person and project the right image out there in cyberspace. We have let technology take over their lives but we have not addressed all the privacy and safety issues that have come up as our children pioneered themselves through the cyber world. Our society has changed is such a fundamentally different way in which we communicate that even the law hasn't been able to keep up with all of it. I really think this guy had no clue what he was posting would even matter. The ability to post a comment into cyberspace makes it much more impersonal than face to face conversation. It's just radically different from our experience and we jump to condemn this guy when the problem is everyone IS doing it. We need to establish routine guidelines for all the kids for appropriate online behavior and how to use these tools responsibly and we have not done that. Until we do this kind of "improper behavior" will keep happening.

Betty Morris, that was a brilliantly conveyed message. I think you are absolutely right. Thanks for the perspective.

I am a mother, a law student, I have a personal connection with the band program, I have many friends who are now band instructors, and I have a loved one who works at West.

All of you throwing stones should look up defamation and seriously consider removing your comments before some nosey person links your username to you.

He is a teacher, and there is no indication that his supposed interests have harmed his ability to teach, nor that he has demonstrated any harm to a student. Had it not been for an overly nosey parent, his posts may never have been found/linked. Maybe instead of going to a popular news site aimed at ratings, a better outlet would have been to discuss her concerns with the district directly? By going to the Patch, all she did was raise more nosey people's concerns and defame a young man who paid thousands of dollars for schooling to become a band director, to devote his life to a career low on most pay scales with overwhelming hours required, in an effort to EDUCATE our youth in ways anyone outside the music community can not fully understand.

Should we condemn all of the 40-something-year-old teachers who think girls half their age their age are a turn-on? Shall we just resort to having emotionless robots teach our children?

(Cont'd)

Maybe we should focus more of our energy on making sure our children are appropriately dressed, not wearing makeup that makes them look twice their age, and not promoting skirts so short that boys, men, and women start wondering what might be covered under there.

Betty Morris and Beacon,... Thank you.

what the article fails to mention is this poster constantly harasses minor females on all social media sites. He has exhibited behavior on-line that is concerning and should be addressed before he is allowed back in the classroom. Perhaps he is "innocent until proven guilty", but his behavior warrants suspension from duties until a full investigation is conducted.

This article should never have been written. The guy has done nothing illegal. The "concerned" parent is laughable. If the parent was so concerned why did he/she go to the patch instead of directly to the dean or authorities? The parent probably never even contacted the school to discuss this. Also, the article doesn't mention that the child of the "concerned" parent was contacted by this guy. The article makes no mention of why this parent started looking in to Maro. How many other teachers has this parent tracked down all over the internet? Sounds more like a cyberstalker. The article is vague and is making insinuations based off generalities. Causing an uproar and making this guy out to be a child perv is a terrible thing to do, not to mention it is clearly defamation. People freaking out about cheerleader shoes being mentioned is ridiculous. Universities have cheerleaders, NFL, NBA, and NHL all have cheerleaders. Do only high school cheerleaders wear cheer shoes? Do the collegiate and pro levels just make them cheer barefoot? Also, there are male cheerleaders... who coincidentally, also wear cheer shoes. It seems like the patch didn't look in to this email very much before the story was posted. I hope at the very least the patch verified the source. I also hope that the patch has the parent's name and didn't write a story based on an email from an anonymous person. Maro has a lot of reasons to sue the patch and some of the other people who are slandering him.

I don't think it was fair to assume and judge a person based on their social media pictures and comments of shoes! Were any inappropriate comments made or directed to children? From everything I have read from the article on patch and the comments posted here my answer would be NO! I am a parent of a Joliet West Band Student and my child has never mentioned one thing about Mr.Maro being inappropriate in any way, shape or form. My child is 17 years old and does know what is and isn't appropriate. My question is why would the parent be reserching Mr. Maro in the first place? Is it because maybe they didn't care for him or his teaching style? Did they do the same to the regular band director also? My point is since we are all supposed to be adults why was this brought to the media instead of the attention of the school district? The parent went about it all wrong! I hope that parent can sleep with herself at night since she caused the school distirct to have a knee jerk reaction due to the published article and cost someone not only their lively hood but their reputation over shoes. I didn't know we still burned people at the stake because of what is assumed. Shame on you!

A lot of y'all seem to be missing the point. This wasn't a witch hunt. This wasn't digging up dirt on some guy. This was information turned over to authorities that HE put in the public eye. HE kept harrassing underage kids on Twitter, Instagram and other social sites. This was parents taking HIS actions and HIS words and giving them to someone that can do something about it because HE wouldn't keep HIS mouth shut and leave kids alone. Not adults, but kids.

The people trying to defend this guy do not understand the extent to which he has gone in harrassing young girls. If you look at his IG page it seems like no big deal. He was however, very inappropriate on a message baord and was inturn removed or blocked from participating. The amount of time and energy this man has put forth to solisate children for pictures of shoes is alarming to me. He goes through much teouble to have several usernames and when he has been blocked from the message board he made up new profiles to continue. I have 2young daughters and I dont think i would take the chance of him being a teacher or role model for them.

Look up metalicaplaya04 that is Phil. If you want him teaching your kids, have fun. Just don't cry when he acts out on his desires.

Metallicaplaya04

if telling middle school and high school girls that they look sexy in their shoes is okay and noting that you would like to pleasure yourself onto a pair of shoes is someone that you want teaching your kids than fine but i sure as hell don't want someone like that around my kids. no adult should be trying to interact with kids online whether it be twitter, instagram or a message board. isn't that how "grooming" starts?

i applaud the person who turned this information over to the authorities to look into. it is unfortunate that it got leaked to the patch but what would you have said if this person sat on this information and something terrible happened? then everyone would be slamming her for not doing something with it.