John Ervin Arnold is ‘not who he says he is’
Radcliff also began researching Arnold’s background, found he wasn’t licensed to practice psychology in Delaware, and followed up with an email to four unidentified Brandywine administrators questioning his qualifications, training and credentials, Lawson said.
Lawson said the essence of Radcliff’s email about Arnold was that “he’s not who he says he is’’ and that Nemours was “elevating this complaint” to Brandywine so district officials could review and possibly take action.
Yet no one alerted the district’s human resources office or other top administrators, including then-Superintendent Lincoln Hohler and herself, Lawson said.
Lawson described being in “major shock’’ upon learning about the Nemours complaint this month — several days after Arnold’s arrest and detainment at Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington on $1.05 million cash bail. At the time, Arnold was handling summer school counseling duties at Claymont Elementary School.
“When I learned that we could have had [Arnold] handled three months before’’ he was arrested, “you can imagine how upset we all were, and we are owning it to our community,’’ she said.
Lawson said she plans to address the school board later this month, “and we are going to work very hard to ensure that this never happens again.”
Beyond disciplinary action for administrators, “we will be working to strengthen our reporting mechanisms in-house with all staff,’’ she said. “We are owning this internal mistake and non-elevation of a serious concern.”
Lawson said that during his nearly three years at Brandywine, Arnold counseled about two dozen students and said the district had not received any information that he might have sexually or physically abused any of them.
Lawson said that the district is also committed to providing outside counseling to all of the students with whom Arnold interacted.
“We have plans in place for every single family that was quote-unquote, ‘treated’ by this unlicensed professional,’’ she said.
Lawmakers seek review of educator credentialing process
While Brandywine is completing its own probe and deciding what action to take, two state lawmakers are calling on the Department of Education to investigate more than just how Arnold’s fake degrees were erroneously verified.
Sen. Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn, a Republican who serves on the chamber’s Education Committee, said the story by WHYY News led him to urge state Education Secretary Mark Holodick to conduct a “thorough audit of the credential verification process.”
“The reported case highlights a significant [failure of] oversight in the credential verification process, which not only endangers our children but also erodes public trust in our education and child welfare systems,” said Pettyjohn, who represents the Georgetown area of Sussex County.
Pettyjohn urged Holodick to implement more stringent checks where necessary, to adopt new verification technologies, increase the frequency of audits, and enhance collaboration with schools and trade groups to confirm credentials.
“It is crucial that we take immediate and decisive action,” Pettyjohn said. “Our children deserve to be protected by qualified professionals who have been thoroughly vetted.”
State Rep. Madison Wilson-Anton, a Democrat representing the Bear area, seconded Pettyjohn’s call for a systemic review.
“I’m definitely disturbed that he was able to land the job that he did with a position of trust with children in our state,” Wilson-Anton said about Arnold and the state’s certification of the fake degrees.
“That’s concerning to me as a legislator but also just as a community member. So I will be looking to see where the investigation goes and how we’re going to address credentials moving forward.”
Post a Comment