Follow Up: Fired Providence Teacher Has Lengthy Arrest Record
Friday, August 05, 2011
The former Providence teacher that is suing the city for back pay and to get his job back after being accused of a series of incidents that included using a racial slur in class, pornography found on his school computer, talking to students about exotic dancing and bribery has been arrested more than a dozen times over the past twenty years, GoLocalProv has learned.
Since 1993, Bernard McCrink, 50, has been arrested 13 times on charges that include possession of a controlled substance, DUI and six instances of driving with a suspended license.
All but one of the arrests occurred while McCrink was a math teacher at Mount Pleasant High School, including the drug arrest which he was placed on three years probation and forced to submit to drug testing for. The most recent charge, a DUI, came in 2009, nearly three years after the Providence School Board voted to terminate his employment.
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When asked if the long list of transgressions, all of which took place after McCrink’s 30th birthday, would be a factor when Judge Susan McGuirl renders her decision on his suit with the city, his lawyer, State Rep. John DeSimone, said, “absolutely not and I have no knowledge of that. It has no bearing on his case nor should it.”
Chances are, DeSimone, who did not represent McCrink in any of his arrests, is right. Judge McGuirl’s ruling will be based on information provided by the Providence School Board and a decision that was upheld in 2009 by Education Commissioner Deborah Gist.
The 2009 report issued by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) found that McCrink’s termination was justified because he failed to call in an absence or provide a substitute teacher with written materials. Although the details of alleged incidents involving a slur, pornography, inappropriate conversation with students and bribery were also laid out in the report, RIDE ultimately found that the School Board did not meet its “burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence the other grounds on which it had sustained Mr. McCrink’s dismissal.”
The report does not include any information about McCrink’s arrest record.
Arrests Do Not Disqualify McCrink From Teaching
But if the judge does rule in his favor, there will likely be some questions about his background before he is allowed back in a classroom. Providence School Department spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly said the District would seek further legal counsel if his employment was restored.
“If the case is found in favor of Mr. McCrink, and whether any criminal background would have an effect on the district’s handling of his assignment, it is premature at this point to comment on that possible scenario,” she said. “The district would seek further legal counsel at that time in the event of such an outcome.”
According to O’Reilly, Providence Schools has a practice of running a pre-employment national and state BCI check on all employees. State law was put in place to require BCIs for school employees in 2001 (RIGL § 16-2-18.1), though Providence’s practice pre-dated the law. She said it is unclear whether that practice was in place as far back as McCrink’s date-of-hire in September 1990.
None of McCrink’s arrests would disqualify him from teaching under state law:
§ 23-17-37 Disqualifying information. – (a) Information produced by a criminal records review pertaining to conviction, for the following crimes will result in a letter to the employee and employer disqualifying the applicant from employment: murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, first degree sexual assault, second degree sexual assault, third degree sexual assault, assault on persons sixty (60) years of age or older, assault with intent to commit specified felonies (murder, robbery, rape, burglary, or the abominable and detestable crime against nature) felony assault, patient abuse, neglect or mistreatment of patients, burglary, first degree arson, robbery, felony drug offenses, larceny, or felony banking law violations.
Similar Cases
Although McCrink was allowed back in the classroom following his drug arrest in the mid-1990s, recent situations involving educators and drugs have resulted in lawsuits and a firestorm of controversy. Earlier this year, GoLocalProv reported that a woman convicted of a felony drug possession charge was serving on Board of Trustees for the Central Fall School District.
In Cranston last year, the ACLU came to the defense of a mother that wanted to volunteer in her daughter’s school only to be turned away because of two felony drug charges that occurred prior to entering rehab and having her child. At the time, the ACLU argued that Cranston’s volunteer policy was actually stricter than its teacher policy.
Judge’s Decision Coming
Still, the district’s drug policy and the question over whether McCrink is fit to teach will not play a role in Judge McGuirl’s decision, which is expected to come sometime in September. McGuirl’s verdict will be strictly based on the information provided by the School Board.
A source close to McCrink that asked not to be identified said McCrink should be reinstated and his criminal record has no bearing on his ability to teach.
“The teacher with a record never should have lost his job in the first place. The city lied and fabricated,” the source said.
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