We reported this weekend on the choice of Lawrence Henchey to replace SOMS English Langauge Arts instructor Megan Alloway, who is taking a personal leave. Henchey was due to start today as per a note to parents on Friday from SOMS Principal Lynn Irby.
But when parents did the most basic online searches of Henchey, they discovered the troublesome history that he had been dismissed from a teaching post in New Milford just last year after state education officials agreed with five charges of poor performance and ineffective work filed by that district.
Although he was tenured, he was fired after a state review and a hearing before an administrative law judge. See more background on that HERE.
Within less than a day of these revelations, and a parents online petition, Irby notified parents Sunday that he would not be appointed and the search would continue.
That was not enough for many parents, who remain concerned that someone with this background could be chosen to teach our children. His past problems were not some hidden, classified file that was leaked or illegally obtained. This was a state public document easily found online.
It begs the question: Did the district know of these past concerns and discipline? And if so, why did they still seek to hire him? Or did they simply not do a basic Google search on Henchey that any grade school student -- and certainly any SOMS teen-ager -- could have done?
Either way, it is a bad image for the district to show either disregard for a staffer's questionable past or ignorance at doing a proper background check.
Failing to do even the most basic review of someone who will be in touch with our children and be responsible for teaching them is unacceptable. It also makes one wonder who else has been hired with perhaps questionable backgrounds that we do not know about.
We have asked the school district what the protocol was for checking Henchey's history, or that of any candidate slated to teach students. Board President Elizabeth Baker declined to respond, referring questions to district spokeswoman Suzanne Turner, who has yet to respond Monday.
And in the meantime, do not expect parents, or any taxpayer whose taxes go to pay our administrators, to let this go away easily. Nor should they.
The school district needs to ensure that those hired to instruct our students be up to the task and worthy of the opportunity. And that those hired to check up on them know what they are doing as well.
While it would indeed be a sign of negligence if this teacher's credentials had not been checked, and had the termination proceedings not been taken into account and satisfactorily explained before the offer went out, I am aghast at what to me seems like a reckless public attack on him.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been far better to first take the concerns directly to the principal and BOE before throwing bombs. While I do not want an unqualified or poor teacher hired to temporarily replace Mrs. Alloway (my own child is in her class), I am repelled by the witch-hunt nature of the attack. It is possible that the teacher was fired for political reasons no matter what the charges.