EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

I just read a scary workplace violence story out of Knoxville, TN where a school teacher shot both his principal and assistant principal after his contract was not renewed.  In the aftermath, authorities wondered what the school could have done to prevent this unfortunate incident.  They conducted on a background check and it didn’t raise any red flags.  Well, unfortunately that background check did not include past employment verifications or references.  If they would have contacted the teacher’s most recent prior employer they would have found his former supervisor said that he threatened him with physical harm while in his employ.

We’ve recently spent a lot of time discussing how employers can avoid violence in the workplace (check out our white paper: Protecting Your Employees from Workplace Violence).  One of the key areas for prevention is to conduct a thorough background check.

See this excerpt from a letter written by a Knoxville area human resources professional published on KnoxvilleNews.com:

As a human resources professional, I can’t imagine why his former employers weren’t called as part of his background check. References (which should include past employers) are a basic part of any pre-employment screening process.

When one of his former supervisors was interviewed on a local television station, he said Foster threatened him with physical harm. Why didn’t the person responsible for doing the background check on Foster know that?

On the day the tragedy occurred, Superintendent Jim McIntyre stated that, during Foster’s hiring process, nothing was discovered that caused alarm. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything in his past that would cause alarm. It just means that someone in the Knox County school system’s human resources department obviously didn’t do a thorough job, and they should be held accountable.

Parents have a right to expect that the individuals who are with their children for most of the day are stable and able to nurture them. Foster was teaching fourth-graders and yelling at them.

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First Student Bus Company is in the news again. This time a company driver has been charged with battery for inappropriately touching a 14 year old girl and then offering her $3 not to tell. This is now the fifth incident the company has faced within the last year. According to the Chicago Sun Times, “Oviedo [the aforementioned driver] is one of five First Student drivers to get in trouble with the law last year. One was arrested for exposing himself to a girl. Another was caught with child porn. A driver was shot and killed by police in Riverdale after a high speed chase.

And First Student bus driver Brian Skoglund was arrested for child endangerment and DUI after losing control of his bus on the Edens Expressway. Skoglund had been hired despite getting fired from a Skokie job. He’d been caught driving a Village vehicle erratically and failing a drug test.”

We wrote about the Skoglund incident when it happened last Fall when a First Student spokesperson said that the company conducted “Fantastic Background Checks”.  Now, it appears those practices will be called into question because they are being sued in civil court.

To be fair, we don’t know if this driver had prior records, however we do know that there were missed warning signs with the earlier drivers that would have been revealed by conducting a proper employment background check.  At some point, the schools that contract this work to these companies are going to have to answer as well.  In the meantime, we as parents will have to hold our breath that this doesn’t happen to our kids.

Check out the video.

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A tragic story of workplace violence hits on Friday.  Three faculty members have been killed and three others wounded after a biology professor opened fire inside University of Alabama-Huntsville Friday.  As we entered the weekend more about Amy Bishop’s past began to surface.  From killing her brother with a shotgun twenty years ago to being investigated for a letter bomb at Harvard.

We have written extensively about the lack of proper background checks in schools and universities.  In addition, our soap box has been crushed over the past year from our almost weekly rants on preventing workplace violence.  Our current white paper on workplace violence has become a target for web searchers and has become one of our top searched stories on EmployeeScreen University.

What does this all mean?  Schools, Colleges and Universities really need to step up their screening process.  This is the second major story on workplace violence in the past few months. (Remember the Yale story?)   Would a typical background check have uncovered this tainted past? Its very hard to say because there was no actual conviction.  However, reference checks may have lead them in the right direction!

Ala. prof bemoaned tenure denial, quiet about past

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Amy Bishop kept quiet about a violent episode in her past around colleagues and students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. But there was one personal issue she didn’t mind loudly complaining about: being denied tenure.

Still, those who knew her said the woman accused of shooting six colleagues had never suggested she might become violent. Everyone from family and friends to her students said the intelligent and at times awkward teacher seemed normal in the hours before police say she opened fire in a faculty meeting Friday afternoon, leaving three dead and three wounded.

Investigators have declined to discuss a motive, but Bishop didn’t hide her displeasure over the fact she’d been denied tenure — a type of job-for-life security afforded to academics.

Bishop was up front about the issue, often bringing it up in meetings where the subject wasn’t appropriate, said William Setzer, chairman of the department of chemistry.

“In committee meetings, she didn’t pretend that it wasn’t happening or anything,” Setzer said. “She was even loud about it: That they denied her tenure and she was appealing it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

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‘Public trust’ employees ace more background checks than many job applicants. But in two hours digging, Volunteer TV News has uncovered a series of incidents dating back to 1995 that, some say, should have raised serious questions to most anybody considering putting Mark Stephen Foster–in charge of 8-and 9-year-olds as fourth grade teacher at Inskip Elementary School.

Terry Mullins says he’s known several people who have shifted career paths drastically once they hit middle age.

But he believes 48-year-old Mark Stephen Foster is a special case.

“I couldn’t possibly imagine how he could go from being a machinst into being a classroom with children,” Mullins says.

That’s why he finds is difficult to believe the fourth grade teacher charged with shooting two principals at Knox County’s Inskip Elementary school, is the same Mark Foster Foster he claims turned violent after being fired for missing too much work at Oak Ridge Tool and Engineering in 1995.

“He actually did threaten my life,” Mullins says.

“Had Oak Ridge Police not intercepted him, I might not be here.
I asked him, with a therapist present, what he would have done had my family been with me if he’d been able to confront me. He looked me straight in the eye and said, I would have kiled them also.”

Mullins says Knox County Schools never called him for a job reference before administrators hired Foster to teach at Inskip in June 2008.

“Many times people are reluctant to divulge the full gamut of their feelings about an individual,” says attorney Rick Hollow.

“They’re afraid of being sued, so many will tell you no more than
when an applicant began work, and when he or she left employment.”

Hollow says that leaves employers few options beyond utilizing public records to conduct more thorough background checks.

Knox County Schools submits applicant’s fingerprints to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, checks for complaints of abuse with the Department of Children’s Services, and requires a drug screen, according to Superintendent Dr. James McIntyre.

“He (Foster) came up clean,” Dr. McIntyre says.

“Probably most prospective employers do not go that far to check incident reports,” Hollow says.

‘Incident reports’, as law enforcement agencies describe them, are written accounts of investigations in which the findings do not result in criminal charges.

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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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Notre Dame has fired their over-promising and under-performing head football coach, Charlie Weis.  Rumors are spreading like wildfire for who will replace Weis.  Especially after athletic director, Jack Swarbrick promised to return the school to the era of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Frank Leahy and Lou Hotlz.  We’ve already heard the names of some pretty heavy hitters as possible candidates: Tony Dungy, Bob Stoops, Jon Gruden, Urban Meyer, Kirk Ferentz, Gary Patterson, Brian Kelly and Jim Harbaugh.

Not a background check story? Think again.  Everyone remembers a few years back when Notre Dame hired an up and coming coach named George O’ Leary to return the team to prominence following a less than stellar performance by his predecessor Bob Davie.  Unfortunately, O’ Leary only lasted a couple days on the job and was unceremoniously terminated because the school found out through media reports that he committed resume fraud and lied about his academic credentials.  Doh!  A simple Education Verification would have saved them the embarrassment that followed.

Here’s hoping they decide to conduct a thorough background check on whoever they bring in.  It will save them time, money and unwanted media attention.

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Ohio schools stepping up the background check process.  If I am not mistaking this is the first state in the country to try a program like this.  Kudos to Ohio Schools for protecting themselves against…….themselves!

Schools Told of Teacher Arrests

System scours daily offenders for educators

Educators don’t need to alert their school districts when they get arrested. The districts already know.

A new computer system links a list of licensed educators — teachers, coaches, counselors, nurses, aides and tutors — to a statewide list of arrests each night. It then sends automatic notifications to the Ohio Department of Education.

A worker at the department then e-mails the districts where the arrested educators work to let school officials know they should follow up with law-enforcement authorities.

Since the system began operating in mid-August, the department has received 36 arrest reports for educators in 33 school districts. Most arrests were for infractions such as traffic offenses or driving under the influence, said Jim Miller, who oversees licensure and educator discipline for the Education Department.

The most serious arrest that Miller could recall was for domestic violence.

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We will kick off this weekends wrap up with a timely story from the National Football League (NFL).  Like my Cleveland Browns, the Oakland Raiders just can’t catch a break.  Fortunately for them they have a marker in the W column.  Unfortunately for them they have a bit of controversy off the field.  They are bracing for the possibility that coach Tom Cable could be arrested soon for an alleged assault on an assistant coach.  If charged, Cable could be suspended by the league.  If convicted Cable could run into serious problems if his next team decides to screen his criminal background.  More on that story here!

Making history today is Justice Sonia Sotomayor the first Hispanic justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Replacing retired Justice David Souter she will begin the new term with some interesting cases.  Background checks and gun laws will definitely be on their docket this year.  Most notably will be McDonald v. Chicago.  In 2008, the justices ruled in a case from the District of Columbia that the Second Amendment bestows an individual right to keep and bear arms. Because the case originated in a federal enclave, the justices passed on the question of whether the Second Amendment also applies to states, thus calling into question gun regulations in those jurisdictions. The justices have now taken up this question and are expected to decide whether citizens in Chicago — which has one of the most restrictive gun regulation regimes in the country — also enjoy the same Second Amendment rights as do their brethren in the District. This case was recently granted and is expected to be heard some time in early 2010.

In workplace violence news Forbes Magazine ran a story, Experts: US worker-on-worker violence under-reported.  Stemming from the murder at Yale Universtiy of Annie Le, they write about some interesting statistics.  Workplace homicide has dropped dramatically, to 444 such cases last year from twice as many in 1995, according to government statistics. And most of those deaths occur in robberies of taxi drivers and clerks. The worker-on-worker homicide rate hovers around a hundred a year nationwide, leaving little data to help predict who is likely to kill a co-worker, said Tom Tripp, co-author of “Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge.” More on this story Click Here

In a follow up to a story we wrote about extensively a few months back….Investigator: Bozeman’s Internet background checks weren’t voluntary.  If you remember this one, the City of Bozeman MT was asking job applicants to supply investigators with their passwords so they could access their Facebook and Myspace accounts as part of the pre-employment screening process.  The city suspended the policy in June of 2009 after they came under fire for the practice.  However, it appears as part of their investigation into the procedure they have found hiring managers got carried away with the practice! More on this story Click Here

This one should scare you if you have elderly relatives in Florida.  Florida lawmakers vow changes after learning of laxness, loopholes in checking child and elder care workers – Florida legislators pledged to overhaul state law to require that caregivers for children and the elderly undergo background checks before they begin work and to close loopholes that have let thousands of felons get jobs in day care and nursing homes.

The proposed reforms come after a Sun Sentinel investigative series last week identified disturbing flaws in the background screening system that allow people to work with Florida’s most vulnerable residents before the caregivers have been vetted. More on this story Click Here

And finally a Kidnapping plot proves the importance of background checks.  The man accused of plotting to kidnap two young girls from a bus stop and hold them for ransom made his first appearance in court on Friday.

Police say Ruben Garcia-Rosario parked his car near the girls’ bus stop to take pictures of them. Rosario is an illegal immigrant who had done some painting at the family’s house, according to investigators.

Would you let someone in your house without properly screening them?

More on this story Click Here

Well that’s it!  Have a great week and check back regularly for stories and comments in the background screening world!

If you have stories you would like us to blog about or post please feel free to email us at blog@employeescreen.com

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Two stories hit my in-box this morning and they could not be more frightening.  The first is pure negligence.  We have written about contractor background checks in the past, this is a great example of lax policy.

Sex Offender Found Working at School

Police caught on to Brown after arresting him on multiple felony counts of indecent exposure to at least five women and one child in the State Line Avenue/I-30 area of Texarkana, AR.  Brown also faces failure to register as a sex offender charges in both Arkansas and Texas.

Brown remains in the Miller County Jail awaiting his first court appearance.

The second story makes you wonder who is paying attention on the Texas State Medical Board????

Editorial: Sex offender should not hold medical license

Few yardsticks in life are better than the headline test. Try it on this one: “Sex offender keeps license to practice psychiatry.”

Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, has vowed to look into the matter, and we’re encouraged that he will. Those who have a state license to treat people at their most vulnerable must be beyond reproach. Those listed on the state’s sex-offender registry could not fit into that category.

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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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