School Officials Tighten CORI Check Rules

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Brockton’s School Committee will propose at its next meeting Tuesday night a new, strict policy that would require anyone—teachers, staff, teacher’s aides, tutors, chaperones, volunteers, and any contractors—to undergo criminal background checks before being allowed to work in or with students in Brockton Public Schools.
The move comes in the wake of the arrest of Kevin Treseler, a 21-year-old Stonehill College student who is accused of forcible rape and sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl during class time at the Angelo Elementary School where Treseler worked as a math tutor.
School committee member Timothy Sullivan said following a special School Committee meeting Tuesday night, officials will require everyone who may have any kind of access to students to be checked for criminal offenses—a policy that goes far beyond state requirements.
“It will help students in the future, but it won’t help this 8-year-old girl. I feel so bad for her,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the School Committee will have its subcommittee draft a new policy that will eventually be adopted by the full committee.
Last night members of the School Committee met in a special session with Malone and other administrators to discuss what were described as privacy, legal and confidentiality issues surrounding the Angelo arrest.
Treseler was arrested on the Stonehill campus in Easton two weeks ago. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment March 22.
School administrators have come under fire during the two weeks since Treseler’s arrest after Malone initially publicly said Treseler had been checked and then admitted Treseler and about six other tutors did not undergo a Criminal Offenders Record Information, or CORI, background check before beginning work as tutors.
Malone said a batch of six tutors-including Tresler—was not checked in October, 2009 which is when Treseler began working in Brockton schools.
“It was a mistake, a snafu, a glitch, an error in processing,” Malone said.
Treseler began tutoring in Brockton’s schools in October 2009, then did not work as part of the work study program until last December. He returned to the classroom in January, court documents show.
The well-established federally-funded tutoring program employs about 150 Stonehill students in all of the city’s schools.
Malone said more than 600 people—teacher’s aides, volunteers, chaperones—perform all types of tasks within the schools during the year.
He said state law only requires those employed by the schools who may have unmonitored access to students must undergo criminal checks every three years and does not include volunteers, chaperones, teacher’s aides and contractors who may do work in the schools.
The state offers free CORI checks for school departments, officials said. Private entities, such as the media, must pay for the service.
Malone said once Treseler’s arrest was made school officials began scouring its records and found Treseler (Pictured below) and others in the tutoring program did not have their backgrounds checked.
He said the paper work was lost amid the thousands of criminal checks the school department processes each month.
Malone said the school department conducts about 1,000 criminal checks per month—a figure several school committee members questioned.
After Treseler’s arrest, officials learned Treseler was arrested for possession of marijuana—a misdemeanor charge that was dismissed.
Malone said it is unlikely Treseler would have been excluded from the tutoring program because of the marijuana charge, although Treseler likely would have been called in by officials for an interview or other screening steps had the background check been performed.
Malone said when he realized Treseler had not been CORI checked he contacted the media to take it back and takes full responsibility for the misinformation.
Malone said school officials have spent the last two weeks rechecking backgrounds of every tutor, volunteer and others who enter Brockton schools in the wake of the arrest and sexual assault charges—actions described as a “Herculean” task.
“We have owned this from the start,” said Superintendent Matthew Malone. “We have been fully transparent, up front and honest about the situation,” he said.
He said the double-checks on Stonehill’s tutors—done with the help of Stonehill—have all come back clean and after about a week suspension of the tutoring program at the Angelo School, all tutors are back in the classroom.
He said no one other than Treseler has been fired or relieved of their tutoring positions.
Malone said he is not waiting for the School Committee to approve a new policy.
He said he has instituted a new 3-step procedure of background checks, including a review panel of “red-flagged” applicants.
“We’re (checking) everyone,” Malone said.
Malone said the first change is no one—he stressed no one—will be allowed to enter the schools either as an employee or volunteer—until a CORI check is returned and is clean.
If there is a crime, violation or any other red flag, Malone said a review panel must—and stressed must—interview the candidate to decide if the person should be allowed to have contact with students.
He said anyone with a felony such as armed robbery, theft, sex crimes or drug distribution on their record will be rejected, but others with misdemeanors such as drunk driving, driving violations or in Treseler’s case, marijuana possession, would require a judgment call by the review panel.
He said all CORI paperwork would be kept under lock and key in the human resources department and available within minutes to administrators with clearance.
Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting was held in closed session because officials said matters that would be discussed included personnel issues, the confidentiality of the student involved in the sexual assault charges, and the legal case against Treseler.
School committee members William Carpenter and Patricia Joyce questioned the need for the closed session and said once matters veered toward policy and not individual performance or confidentiality they would move to go into open session.
After the meeting Carpenter said he believed the closed session was absolutely necessary and feels more confident that gaps in the background checks have been closed saying the committee "grilled" administrators over the matter.
“Parents should feel very comfortable that no one will have access to students in Brockton Public Schools without having had a background check,” Carpenter said.
However, Carpenter disagreed school officials were completely transparent in the beginning because initially Malone said Treseler had undergone a background check and then it turned out he was not.
“I think things could have been handled better. I think the administration could do a better job of how they present information to the media. I think it’s a learning experience for them,” Carpenter said. “In the beginning mixed messages were sent and created a lot of questions,” he said.
Carpenter said the new CORI check policy is a step in the right direction. He said during the closed session he asked officials to ensure school bus drivers are included in the CORI process.
He said it is unclear what the process is for bus drivers at the moment.
While he is in complete agreement about the steps the school officials have taken to close the gaps in the background check procedure, he warns that, although criminal checks can eliminate a lot of potential problems, it does not resolve issues surrounding the protection and safety of students.
“Criminal checks are not a panacea,” Carpenter said. “CORI checks are just a screen. It doesn’t predict future behavior,” he said.