Edwardsville High School Employee Charged With Grooming, Child Solicitation

EDWARDSVILLE – An Edwardsville High School employee accused of sending explicit messages to a 16-year-old student remains in custody awaiting trial on felony charges.

James L. Williams Jr., 29, of the 200 block of Wonderland Drive in Alton, was charged on April 2, 2026 with one count each of indecent solicitation of a child (a Class 2 felony), solicitation to meet a child, and grooming (both Class 4 felonies).

Williams is accused of knowingly soliciting a 16-year-old child to perform a sexual act, arranged to meet with the same child for an unlawful purpose, and used Microsoft Teams to discuss performing sex acts on the victim.

A petition to deny Williams’s pretrial release from custody states the Edwardsville Police Department initiated the investigation through the school Resource Officer after a student reported receiving sexually explicit messages from Williams, an Edwardsville High School employee. The petition states Williams later admitted to the conversations with the minor student, which were recovered by police.

“The defendant was Mirandized and interviewed and made admissions that he was messaging with a student at Edwardsville High School, and engaged in inappropriate conversations with [the student],” the petition states. “He also made admissions that he was planning to meet [the student] at her house over spring break..”

The Edwardsville Police Department presented the case against Williams, who currently remains in custody at the Madison County Jail.

All individuals charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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