More About That Embattled WCSD Principal

WCSD says it is going to "toughen" its background checks.

This won't do one bit of good:

Mieras said the district did not know about Stansberry’s legal troubles because charges were not filed against the 43-year-old principal until April. All background checks are done prior to a person being hired.

“We have a good relationship with our local agencies, who let us know if a Washoe County School District employee has been arrested — but that’s here,” Mieras said.

A policy started over the summer will avoid situations like this in the future, Mieras said.

“One of the things we instituted is that anyone hired out of state or our county, we will do a more in-depth investigation,” Mieras said. “We will call the school and talk to people randomly. We will contact police and the courts where that person resided for any information about a candidate.”

You can't toughen a background check if the principal in question has a sealed file from his previous employer, which I am sure is the case here. (If so, he is not the first case of a principal hired at WCSD who had a sealed file from a previous school district after being accused of misconduct. There are others.) The principal then feels he is free to lie on an application because of the terms of his settlement at a previous job. Of course, this guy was dumb enough to believe he could sneak through even though it would be likely he would be charged with a crime.

What should have happened and didn't was that the Benton Harbor School District didn't immediately notify the Michigan Department of Education of the allegations against Stansberry. He didn't need to be convicted of a crime to lose his license or have it suspended; he clearly violated professional ethics even before he was charged criminally. Sanctions would be put on his license and would show in a background check using a nationwide database of teachers/administrators.

The district has no choice but to fire this principal. It will the first case I know of where a principal has been fired outright from the district. Many, many more should have met similar fates, but they are allowed to keep working there in other positions. Teachers are not afforded the same perks, let me tell you. They get fired over nothing while the perpetrators of the terminations do better than ever.