A Lesson About Reference Checks

A school teacher in Colorado has been arrested for sexual misconduct on campus, and his employer may or may not have conducted adequate reference checks.  Da’Jon James was arrested for sexual misconduct with four students. His employer, the Dawson School, sent a letter to parents saying that the hiring process was “consistent with best practices in the industry,” including conversations with the teacher’s previous employer, Cate School in California that revealed no previous problems.

Cate School disputes Dawson’s account, stating that the employees that Dawson talked to were not authorized to speak on behalf of Cate. In fact, the head of Cate says, the school terminated James because of potential boundary issues with students.

This scenario is every youth-serving organization’s nightmare. Not only did a staff member possibly harm students, but there may be information that would have alerted the organization to potential problems. At this point, we only know the charges and countercharges, but there are some lessons to be learned about good reference checks.

First, be certain that you are talking to a person in a position of authority at the previous school.  A fellow teacher may be a good personal reference, but you need to hear from people who know about disciplinary actions and what is in the personnel file.

Second, get everything in writing. Sometimes it is hard to get prior employers to fill out forms for us, but we need to at least ask them for written recommendations. If nothing else, have a form for your hiring staff to fill out as they talk to the prior employer, with spaces for the name, position, and answers to specific questions. Don’t depend on your hiring staff’s memory of the conversation.

Finally, ask specific questions about issues such as boundary violations and concerns of parents, students, or colleagues. If you only ask about official actions, you might miss red flags that are still under investigation. A former employer may be too worried about a lawsuit to actually tell you anything, but at least you can document that your organization asked the question.

Reference checks are an important check on hiring staff, but the process can become so routine that it’s easy to cut corners. These sorts of news stories are a good reminder why we need to have a good procedure and follow it every time to avoid trouble.