A Brockton, MA elementary school student was raped (allegedly) by a college student tutor employed by the school.   This is one of the most hideous, disgusting and sickening crimes that we’ll ever see and probably the best (or worst) example of why background checks are so vitally important in the hiring process.

It is unclear as to whether the school screened this student teacher for criminal records or to see if they were a registered sex offender, but it has been discovered that while school employees were originally checked at the time of hire, the district failed to meet their requirement of conducting a new criminal background check in January of 2010.

The superintendent of the school claims that this was due to human error, but my goodness, isn’t this one thing you can’t afford to get wrong?

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As important as it is to conduct a background check on potential new hires, it is just as important to ensure your employees are staying out of trouble once they are  hired. 

A Texas Charter School teacher has been fired and now faces criminal charges stemming from an incident caught on video of her assaulting one of her 13-year-old students.  A warrant had been issued for this teacher’s arrest over a year before the assault occurred for criminal mischief - she is accused of slashing another woman’s tires in January of 2009.  If the Charter School had a policy in place to re-check their employees’ background annually, they would have learned of the warrant and taken the appropriate action.  Perhaps then this unfortunate incident would not have occurred.

Charter Teacher Who Beat Student Was Wanted

(May 13) — The Houston charter school teacher caught on a cell-phone video beating a 13-year-old student was wanted on a criminal mischief charge, accused of slashing a woman’s tires last year.

Sheri Lynn Davis, 40, was fired Monday by Jamie’s House Charter School. However, she won’t lose her teaching certificate because she never had one, the Houston Chronicle reported. Texas law states that only bilingual and special education teachers must be certified in order to work at charter schools. Davis is a science teacher.

Davis taught at the charter school for more than a year while a warrant was out for her arrest, stemming from the alleged tire slashing in January 2009. Davis is scheduled to appear in court on that criminal mischief charge, a misdemeanor, on Tuesday, according to Houston’s KRIV-TV. 

She lost her job after school administrators saw a cell phone video recorded by one of her students in late April that showed her slapping and kicking 13-year-old Isaiah Johnson, then dragging him across the floor and slamming his head into a wall. The boy’s mother, Alesha Johnson, said Isaiah suffered a black eye and other bruises in the attack.

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Questions:

How dumb does a school have to be not to conduct background checks on their employees, let alone their principal?

Do schools have an obligation to protect the children in their care?

Would you hire this person? “Goodman was arrested in May 2008 and sentenced in November 2008 after pleading guilty to two counts of fourth-degree rape and one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct.”

Answer: See below.

Delaware schools: IR district sued over rape of student

Indian River School District sanctioned behavior by a former Sussex Central High School principal that led to the repeated rape of a student beginning on New Year’s Day 2008, according to a civil lawsuit filed in Kent County Superior Court.

By failing to perform a proper background check before hiring Dana I. Goodman in 2006, Indian River, as well as its board and superintendent, violated standards schools they are expected to meet in protecting students, said the lawsuit filed last month by Wilmington’s Neuberger Firm. Goodman, who is serving a four-year prison term, also is named in the suit.

Indian River superintendent Susan S. Bunting’s office referred calls to district lawyer Mike Williams. He could not be reached Thursday.

“These things should never happen,” said Stephen J. Neuberger, one of the victim’s lawyers. “This is why schools are supposed to have rigorous hiring practices.”

The victim is not being named because she was a juvenile at the time of the incidents.

In his second year as principal, Goodman, 39, used his position to lure the girl into having sex with him, prosecutors said. According to the civil lawsuit, Goodman fixed it so the girl’s attendance in a class she did not like showed she was there — even though she was not. The teacher knew Goodman was altering the girl’s attendance record, but did nothing, the suit said.

“After Goodman began altering [the girl's] attendance record, he started to incessantly beg plaintiff to repay him for those actions,” the suit said. “He repeatedly told [the girl] that she needed to meet him in the back parking lot of the local Delaware Technical Community College campus.”

Since he was principal and had the power to alter students’ attendance records, the suit said the girl “was afraid of what would happen to her if she did not do as Goodman demanded.”

She met him in the parking lot and got into his vehicle, where Goodman became forceful, removed her clothing and raped her, the suit claims. Afterward, “he repeatedly apologized.”

Goodman was arrested in May 2008 and sentenced in November 2008 after pleading guilty to two counts of fourth-degree rape and one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct.

According to the lawsuit, Indian River and its co-defendants had “actual or constructive” notice that Goodman was dangerous to students.

A proper background check would have found that Goodman had sexually abused at least one other female student during his employment in Maryland, it claims, and that a formal complaint was filed against Goodman by Maryland educators.

But even after Goodman’s hiring, Indian River failed to take action after receiving numerous complaints from parents of other students at Sussex Central High School regarding the former principal’s inappropriate interactions with children, the suit says.

The lawsuit is asking for compensatory and punitive damages.

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Henry School Superintendent Brian Sieh has been in trouble with the law before his domestic assault charge. Sieh has a lengthy record of traffic violations, including tickets for open container.

Sieh pleaded guilty to eleven speeding tickets and two open container violations between 1995 and 2008. But even such traffic violations aren’t necessarily deal breakers for landing a job as a school superintendent.

South Dakota law requires the state to conduct a criminal background check on anyone applying for a job with a school district.

“People in the state can feel confident that people employed in the school districts have gone through a thorough criminal background check,” Brian Aust of Associated School Boards of South Dakota said.

School boards cannot hire anyone with a history of violent crimes, like the assault charge Sieh is accused of. Sexual assaults and drug convictions are also major red flags. But districts have more leeway when it comes to hiring someone with traffic tickets.

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When a background check does not uncover convictions for “sexual abuse against children and multiple counts of sodomy”, you aren’t running a thorough background check.  Disturbed doesn’t even begin to describe my reaction to this story.   The University of Georgia didn’t just miss the boat on this one.  They sunk it.

Professor, fired for lying about sexual abuse against children, helped out at elementary schools (w/audio, documents)

Tamara Best, RedandBlack.com – December 10, 2008

A former College of Education professor was fired after he failed to tell the University he served jail time for sexual abuse against children and multiple counts of sodomy, and the University reports “no developments regarding the termination.”

Cecil Fore III was hired in August 2001 and was on the tenure track in the College of Education’s Department of Special Education.

In April 2006 he was promoted to associate professor with tenure, according to documents obtained by The Red & Black.

A “large component” of his work at the University included traveling to 13 schools between 2004 and 2006 to implement “positive behavorial supports to curb school-wide discipline,” the document states.

In 1991, Fore was convicted on multiple counts of sodomy in the second degree and one count of sexual abuse in the second degree against three special education students in junior high schools in Montgomery, Ala., according to court documents.

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Benjamin Terrill was hired for a teaching position by the Akron City School District in 1996.  Since that time, it has been discovered that he not only lied on his job application about his criminal past, military, and job experience, but that in 1999, he also threatened to shoot a special education student for making too much noise.  That was NINE years ago.  I have serious concerns about a school district that allows a teacher to continue teaching after a threat like that.  If the situation were reversed and a student threatened a teacher, you can bet that student would be immediately expelled.

Obviously, I also question why the school district did not perform a background check on Terrill before he was hired or even after the threat was made against that student.  I am anxiously awaiting the school district’s statement regarding the hiring and retention of this teacher.

WKYC Exclusive: Teacher who posed as combat veteran threatened to shoot special ed student

Eric Mansfield, WKYC.com – September 30, 2008

AKRON — An Akron teacher who masqueraded as a combat veteran once threatened to bring a shotgun to school and shoot a special education student who was making too much noise, according to his teaching file.

Benjamin Terril has been suspended from the Akron Public Schools following his arrest on Sept. 1.

Akron Police found dozens of weapons, some believed to be illegal, along with hand grenades and drugs inside Terril’s home, police said.

Channel 3′s Eric Mansfield checked Terril’s teaching file, which included Terril’s claims that he served in the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division and was wounded during Desert Storm. A formal request for Terril’s military file resulted in the government denying that Terril ever served a day in uniform. Terril had no comment when asked about the phony claims of military service.

Also in Terril’s file was a reprimand he received in 1999 for threatening to bring a shotgun to Buchtel High School to shoot a special education student who was making too much noise.

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Last week, I blogged about how the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletics Association (PIAA) does not conduct background checks on those officiating school sporting events (see Pittsburgh Newspaper Reports Sports Officials Have Criminal Records).  Since that blog, I’ve seen numerous follow up stories regarding this issue, the majority disagreeing with PIAA officials that their current process of not conducting background checks is acceptable.  Well, it appears that PIAA may not have a choice in the future of whether to screen those they hire to work directly with children.

State Rep. Pushes For Background Checks For PIAA Officials

WPXI.com – September 23, 2008

CANONSBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Rep. Tim Solobay is pushing for a new law to protect high school athletes from child predators.

Under Solobay’s legislation, all Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Athletic Association officials who have direct contact with children will have to undergo a background check.

A recent report showed several PIAA officials had criminal histories including child abuse, sexual battery and child pornography.

Let’s just hope Pennsylvania does their homework on what constitutes a thorough background check.  Otherwise, this may not be the last we hear on this issue.

A new law requiring more background checks on Ohio teachers and school employees is finding a lot of adverse information.  No one ever wants to see someone lose their job, especially after so many years of gainful employment.  However, this is for a greater good, protecting our children.

Searches of Old Criminal Records End School Jobs

Sweeping changes in state laws intended to keep students safe have uncovered criminal offenses — some decades old — that are costing school employees their jobs.

The impact has been especially evident among nonteaching employees who, until this year, did not have to undergo the kind of comprehensive background checks done for teachers.

Now, staffers such as custodians, secretaries and cafeteria workers may face dismissal for newly unearthed offenses committed years ago.

John Reccord, a night supervisor for the Orange school district, has worked there for nearly two decades. But he stands to lose his job for an offense to which he pleaded guilty 35 years ago and was sentenced to probation.

“I have been at the school for 19 years without any problems,” Reccord said. “This is going to affect people who did something when they were young. Why should they lose their jobs now?”

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I was going to post this article sans the comments.  I can’t hold back….I don’t agree with many of the statements here, notably:

“Personally, I feel everything is being done to keep our children safe,” Velkoff said.

Again, you can do background checks or you can do background checks properly.  I humbly submit my series Employment Screening 101 to the Fairfax county Public Schools.

Background Checks aren’t Foolproof

By Layla Wilder
Source: Fairfax County Times

As children return to school after a year when several Fairfax County Public Schools staff were arrested, those in charge of the school system’s hiring say they are doing everything possible to keep criminals away from students.

An unusually high number of school employees were arrested during the 2007-2008 school year, said Kevin North, head of the school system’s Human Resources Department.

As the 2008-2009 school year begins, the schools’ hiring staff will continue with its stringent approach to screening applicants, North said. Last year’s statistics proved that approach hasn’t always been successful, according to notifications from the county’s police.

Leonard Marsh, an assistant principal at Cub Run Elementary School, was arrested Oct. 30, 2007, for growing marijuana. Police arrested Marsh and his wife, Jinny, after narcotics detectives executed a search warrant at the Marshes’ home and found marijuana in packages and growing in a closet.

In May 2008, Rachel Smith, a teacher at the Chantilly Academy, was arrested and charged with possessing methamphetamine.

Thyra Eller-Cox, 42, was an administrative assistant at Greenbriar West Elementary School when she was arrested and charged with two counts of embezzlement in December 2007. She allegedly deposited school money into a personal bank account, police said.

Ted Velkoff, president of Chantilly High School’s PTSA, said the topic has been discussed at the group’s meetings. Administrators assure parents that everything is being done to hire quality staff.

“Personally, I feel everything is being done to keep our children safe,” Velkoff said.

Allan Barbee, a former investigator specialist for the county school system, said in November 2007 that about 5 percent of people applying for county school jobs have a prior criminal record.

They are required to undergo background checks from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the state police and the Virginia Department of Social Services.

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You may not believe this but I have been waiting for a story like this for a while.  We have written countless times (including 5 minutes ago) about school systems failing to conduct proper background checks.  It appears Davidson County did something right!  They caught a fugitive looking to work as a teacher with kids in a school.

Newly Hired Davidson Co. Teacher Was a Fugitive

LEXINGTON, N.C. (WGHP) — A woman hired to teach in the Davidson County school system failed a background check and will be returned to Maryland to face criminal charges.

Arlene Denetta Hudson, 42, of High Point was arrested last week after a criminal history check revealed she was wanted by Maryland State Police for stealing a car in September 2005 from a Toyota dealership in Westminster, Md.

School officials notified the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office after Hudson’s background check turned up the criminal charges. A school resource officer then arrested her.

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