Dallas, TEXAS

Nov 26, 2006 - Background checks - In 1992, a Dallas Morning News investigation found 185 district employees who had felony criminal histories despite a 1989 law that authorized background checks on new employees. Nothing seems to have improved and a review process allows many to keep or get jobs despite criminal backgrounds that should be intolerable.

This year, DISD [Dallas Independent School District] reviewed several employees' backgrounds after The News asked if those people had gone through the district appeals process. Two were recommended for termination, and at least two – with indecent exposure charges – resigned, records show. School officials said they had used the newspaper's public records request to review their own employees' backgrounds.
"If they did something that was inappropriate, regardless of how we find out, we have to check it," Dr. Hinojosa said.

The district does know about at least 85 current employees with criminal records – 23 of them teachers.

Of the 85 current employees who won appeals to keep their jobs, most had committed offenses like driving while intoxicated, misdemeanor theft, fraud and offenses related to drugs. Some, though, had aggravated assault, prostitution, public lewdness and burglary on their records.

From the Athens Review: July 20, 2006 - "For the fifth time in less than a year, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department is working a case concerning a teacher alleged to have been involved in a sexual relationship with a student.