Unease over background checks

Juanita Peek wonders how often school employees are hired in Washington state before their background checks reveal they have a criminal history.

She knows of one case: her own.

The Everett resident lost her job as a substitute Edmonds School District bus driver when a 14-year-old misdemeanor conviction for obstructing a police officer was discovered two months after she was hired.

She did not disclose that information when she filled out her job application.

“The law needs to be changed,” she said. “A deviant person could mark ‘no’ just to get close to (students), and they could never know for months.

“I know parents aren’t aware of this – at least the ones I have talked to,” she said.

Local and state school experts say it is rare for anyone to be hired and have an undisclosed criminal record surface during the background check.

Each year, the State Patrol and FBI process around 30,000 criminal background checks of potential school employees in Washington state who could have unsupervised access to children. Those background checks include a review of fingerprints and typically take one to two months.

“A very small percentage falsify,” said Charles Schreck, director of the Office of Professional Practices for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Most often, the undisclosed records are misdemeanors, but felonies do pop up, he said.

Peek, a waitress much of her life, failed to check “no” on a box in her Edmonds School District application that asked if she had ever been convicted of a crime.

She said she has filled out many applications that ask if she had been convicted of a felony. Her 1990 misdemeanor didn’t dawn on her when she filled out the Edmonds application, she said.

Peek drove buses last spring and received a letter Aug. 4 saying she was fired because she provided inaccurate information on her application.

“I think they should have had that (background check) back before they started my training,” Peek said. “They approved my training, and that’s a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.”

Officials in the Edmonds district can remember three inaccurate applications relating to criminal records in six years, said Debbie Jakala, a spokeswoman for the district. One was for a teaching position.

Often, new employees are hired on the condition their background checks are accurate, meaning there is an honor code in the interim, Jakala said.

If job applicants report past crimes, particularly old misdemeanors unrelated to their new jobs, they still have a chance of being hired, Jakala said.

Randy Hathaway, executive director of the Washington School Personnel Association, has watched the state focus increasing attention on background checks of school employees over the years.

“The information that we have to have for making hires is more in-depth than ever before,” he said.

Despite that, some people with criminal histories are hired.

Timothy Buckley was hired as an elementary school teacher’s assistant and was later charged with possession of child pornography. He was first hired as a custodian 10 years ago. The Edmonds school job application asked if prospective employees had been convicted of a crime within seven years. Buckley had not, although he had been convicted of second-degree burglary and second-degree arson, both felonies, about 10 years before.

When he applied to become a teacher’s assistant, the application form had changed, asking if he had ever been convicted of a crime. He disclosed his criminal history and that was considered, along with his solid work record, Jakala said.

Court papers now allege Buckley, 51, of Edmonds, possessed child pornography on his home computer. Illegal photos apparently were downloaded from the Internet, Snohomish County prosecutors say.

In addition, Buckley’s computer had dozens of images of fully clothed girls from the school where he worked that focused on their sexual anatomy, court papers say.

He remains on paid administrative leave from his job pending a district investigation.

Molly Ringo, director of human resources for the Everett School District, can’t recall any cases of inaccurate reporting of criminal records on applications in her past nine years in different districts. “The issues are not with our brand new hires,” she said.

More likely, it is a long-time employee who gets in trouble, be it a misdemeanor or a more serious crime. For instance, a former Henry M. Jackson High School teacher was sent to prison this year after pleading guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor.

Regardless, Peek, who has since found a job as a waitress, believes it is important for people to know about the lag time between hiring and when their criminal background check comes back. “I’m basically trying to let parents be aware,” she said.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.

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