EXCLUSIVE: CVUSD instructor’s contract rescinded after inappropriate behavior found at past district
Athena Jreij
THERMAL, Calif. (KESQ) — In a unanimous decision Thursday evening, the Coachella Valley Unified School District Board voted to rescind the contract of a newly-hired instructor.
Superintendent Dr. Frances Esparza confirmed the instructor’s contract was rescinded after inappropriate behavior was discovered at a prior district.
It’s raising the question of how background checks are conducted to protect students.
Getting answers, News Channel 3’s Athena Jreij spoke with Superintendent Esparza on their process when hiring.
“When it’s a certificated employee, which is a teacher, a counselor, an administrator, even in leadership, we have to go through a background check, which is our DOJ clearance. It’s a fingerprint situation where it will inform or flag if a person has been inappropriate in, possibly a school district or while working with children,” Esparza said.
Dr. Esparza says because the prior district did not report the inappropriate behavior to the California Commission on Teacher Credentials, it wasn’t flagged in their background check.
“It’s very rare for a district not to report something because there’s education code that states if somebody has done something egregious or any type of misconduct with children, that it is reported by the district, it’s ed code,” Esparza said.
News Channel 3 obtained screenshots from social media posts where parents raised concerns about the new hire, and asked why greater attention wasn’t given to online messages.
“We do have our HR department who looks at reference checks. They look at the DOJ clearance and they do a social media check as well. However, we can’t find every single social media post that students or other parents or organizations put out about certain people,” she said.
It comes as two former CVUSD teachers are in court this week for alleged molestation charges. While those cases weren’t under her leadership, we asked Esparza how they move forward after cases like this.
“We do inform the parents that our first priority is making sure our students are safe. We let them know about the hiring process as well, especially if there’s a school where parents are concerned about a teacher. But we are highly transparent when it comes down to that. And our first and foremost, belief is, again, students first.”