Florida warned schools about a teacher’s fraud. Baltimore County missed the red flags.

Florida tried to warn other school systems about Dazhon Darien back in 2016.

Thanks to a national clearinghouse for screening teachers, hundreds of school districts would have known to ask more questions before hiring Darien, the high school athletic director who was arrested in April and accused of framing a Pikesville principal using artificial intelligence. Florida’s education department flagged the clearinghouse eight years ago that Darien was denied a teaching certificate based on “test or document fraud.”

Baltimore County Public Schools didn’t get the memo.

When the school district first hired Darien in spring 2023, it didn’t have access to the database run by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education Certification, which has tracked all “adverse action” against licensed educators since 1985, according to Jimmy Adams, the group’s executive director...

...Maryland law requires school systems to review applicants’ employment history “by contacting the employers listed by the applicant” when the job involves direct contact with minors. School systems, though, can set up their own vetting procedures in addition to what’s required by law, according to the state education department...

Baltimore County schools missed red flags hiring man charged in racist AI scandal - The Baltimore Banner