SPRINGFIELD – School administrators in McLean County can be sued for failing to warn a neighboring district that it was hiring a teacher with a record of sexual misconduct, a divided Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case with echoes of the Penn State scandal.

The teacher, Jon White, went on to abuse at least eight girls in his new job.

Administrators at McLean County Unit District No. 5 had gotten multiple complaints about White and suspended him twice, for viewing pornography on a school computer and for making suggestive remarks to a fifth- grader. White was forced to resign.