Video: The Importance Of Thoroughly Vetting School Employees

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WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A USA Today survey reveals Mississippi receives a “D” in its background check report card for teachers.

Recently, one Columbus teacher was arrested for alleged drug activity and one teacher in Desoto County arrested for alleged sexual misconduct with a student.

Mississippi requires every educator to be screened before hiring.

But how do some teachers continue to slip through the cracks?

“We will not tolerate it and we can’t. Our job is to serve these kids and serve them in the best way possible way that we can,” said Superintendent of Webster County Schools, Jack Treloar.

Treloar says his district takes active measures to vet through every employee before they are hired.

“You have to make the calls and you’ve got to make the connections with the people they work with prior, and it may not just be the last school, but the last few schools they worked at and if they have worked at a lot of schools, that maybe a really good indication too,” said Treloar.

The district follows state-mandated back ground checks but Treloar says there is one thing sets his district apart from others.

“Former graduates of Webster county schools whether it be Eupora or East Webster and those people come back and they have a vested interest in this community and take a lot of pride and with that, I think we’ve been really blessed with the teachers that we have in Webster County schools,” said Treloar.

Although the Webster County School District hasn’t had many issues with teachers, Treloar says if it were to happen, they would punish to the full extent.

“If we have problems like that, it will be dealt with in a timely manner and it will be dealt with to the severity as far as we can go,” added Treloar.
Under Mississippi’s “D” grade, although the screening measures were weak, the reporting of teacher misconduct was strong.