A recent report out of New York indicates that Innovative Charter School, a high-end charter school in the city sharing Tweed Courthouse space with the Department of Education, hired convicted heroin dealer Carlos Tapia to supervise children in the school cafeteria without so much as a simple background check.
Released after serving a year and a half for slinging smack, Carlos easily obtained the position at Innovative Charter School. Expecting that a thorough background check had been done, Carlos was as surprised as everyone else when the information summarily came to light and he was fired after working at the school for three months.
Carlos himself now worries over the security of the school systems, and wonders how things may have been different if a violent criminal instead of himself may have been accidentally hired instead. A heroin dealer is the voice for children — what’s wrong with this picture?
Prior to his incarceration Carlos worked as a teacher’s aid, making the transition into the Innovating Charter School most likely appealing to the individual in charge of hiring at the time. School officialls from Innovative Charter School still claim that background checks are always done and that the person responsible for Mr. Tapia’s is no longer employed by them, however school head Gayla Thompson refuses to comment on the matter and simply hangs up on any reporters calling for clarification.
With such blatant mistakes happening in high-end schools you’re left wonder, what else is slipping through the cracks?