Loopholes in Maryland Let Administrators with Criminal Backgrounds in to Schools

...Maryland has strict laws regarding the hiring of individuals who have been convicted of sexual crimes or crimes of violence to work for public and non-public schools. Schools can lose their state certification. An applicant for an education license who is found to have made a material misrepresentation or concealment in an application or filed a false report or record about a material matter in the application for certificate may have their license suspended or revoked.

The Freddie Dean Smith case in New York has been an ongoing travesty but Smith's experience in Maryland suggests loopholes that need to be closed in the Old Line State:

• Smith was able to work in schools in the Baltimore City Public School [BCPS] district by working as a consultant and working for a non-profit which runs BCPS charter schools.
• BCPS does not independently verify to a non-public school that a prospective job candidate has had a background check let alone whether the person passed or failed.
• It appears impossible that BCPS ran a 50-state criminal background check on Smith because several of his convictions would automatically disqualify a candidate and yet he passed, twice.
• MSDE [Maryland State Department of Education] failed to verify Smith's doctorate, relying instead on what may have been an altered UVA transcript. 
• A BTN board member [Charter School operator] flagged Smith based on a Google search but there was no follow up by BTN.
• No one at BTN, BCPS or MSDE bothered to do even the most limited fact-checking of Smith's record.

http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/getting-results-baltimore-charter-school-operator-fires-freddie-dean-smith-following-tots