In Winston-Salem, NC this week, school officials announced that they will take a random sample of employees and run their names through a criminal background check. A new procedure for the Winston-Salem/Forsythe County Schools, the criminal checks will search for past convictions that may have been missed during prior employment screenings that were run.
This decision was made by the school board after a drama teacher in Mineral Springs, NC was arrested over the weekend in connection with 10 counts of sexual misconduct with a student. The student attended Mineral Springs Middle School where 57 year-old teacher, Ralph David Surridge, had worked. One of the most difficult aspects of his arrest come with the new-found knowledge that Surridge had served time in prison for a felony embezzlement conviction back in 1985; a crime that was missed when the school system ran their last criminal background searches on him.
As the reality hits school officials and parents that this man would never have been hired at that school had his conviction been properly uncovered, officials are scrambling to justify their lack of knowledge. The school maintains that they used proper criminal background check procedures at the time of Surridge’s hiring to catch these types of issues. “We believe this is an anomaly, but we want to make sure that’s the case,” said Theo Help, the school’s spokesman (JournalNow, October 20, 2009).
The shift in screening procedures over time has made for a much better criminal records check in schools. At the time Surridge was hired, the Human Resources Departments at the school was the group who ran the background checks through the computer records provided by the state’s Administrative Offices of the Courts (JournalNow, October 20, 2009). The school system has since switched to a private employment screening service for better accuracy and thoroughness.
The plan, not yet fully ironed out, will likely take a random sampling of both full-time and part-time employees who work at the schools in both counties. They will use those employees’ forms of identification to uncover their past criminal records through a privately-hired employment screening vendor. The main goal is to see if any of those employees have prior criminal convictions that were missed during previous criminal background searches done by the schools.
With our country’s court systems keeping electronic records in their databases, it has become easier to catch criminal convictions. It has now become a more thorough and accurate process to run a criminal background check. Employment screening firms, like Accu-Screen, can pinpoint criminal convictions and inform employers accurately and quickly before someone like Surridge is hired and can do harm. One online comment from “Clem” about this story, as posted on the JournalNow.com news Web site, stated: “How come when I run this guy’s name in the public search for NC Department of Corrections it is plain and clear he is a convicted felon? What kind of background checks are the school systems paying for?”
The truth is that the Human Resource Departments were not properly equipped to uncover what should have been discovered during Surridge’s application phase of employment. By using trusted employment screening firms like Accu-Screen, schools, hospitals, and workplaces can be kept safe from the “employee from hell”.
