Cd'A schools' hiring practices unacceptable

After learning about the recent allegations against Jeffrey Kantola, a former LCHS teacher facing charges of lewd conduct with a child under 16, I reached a tipping point. I’m not making a statement on his guilt or innocence, but his record provokes grave concern about our school district’s practice of hiring employees whose backgrounds potentially threaten the safety of our kids.

I discovered the information about Kantola shortly after learning about a few other questionable hires by the CDA school district, such as the teacher who had previously been paid to go away from Sunnyside School District in Washington state for having her students read “hard pornography;” the two-part series in The Press about the teacher who was arrested for possession of marijuana, and is still teaching in our district; and the former teacher hired by our district who now sits in prison for a sex crime against a child. He was hired even after discovering he had restraining orders against him in Colorado at the time of hire. This is not even an exhaustive list.

I am deeply concerned about the hiring practices within the CDA school district. For example, did you know that a new hire can be on our school campus for up to three months until results of a background check are available to confirm that they are safe to be near our kids? This is unacceptable! How low can our standards be?

A simple Google search using the names of some recently hired teachers reveals red flags. Surely a thorough background check and adequate review of references would have revealed these issues before these teachers were hired. How is it that our school district is not taking the precautions to protect our kids that many businesses in town take simply for hiring their office- or service-industry employees? I would much rather err on the side of caution in an effort to keep our children safe than to take a chance on one of them being exploited.

I urge the community to learn about the policies to which our district is supposed to adhere. They can be found in sections 5100, 5110, 6100, and 1205 under the school board tab of the district website [https://www.cdaschools.org/Page/848]. I do not believe these policies are being upheld. We need more accountability and higher standards for hiring so that we can protect our children. Our superintendent should be ensuring that candidates are properly vetted before presenting them to the board. Our board is an added layer of accountability, but they really shouldn’t need to question whether basic vetting for safety risk has occurred by the time candidates reach them for approval.

A review of the voting record on new hires in the minutes of school board meetings shows that one or two trustees voted no on several. When I asked one of the trustees for the reason for her vote of “no,” she stated that her expectations as a parent concerned her based on what she was seeing as a trustee. She believes that hires who should never be hired are being passed through without accountability and that this practice is disturbing. I agree. How can we tolerate this outrage?

This is a community problem and I’m writing this letter in hopes that our community will take action to hold people in power responsible and accountable for the safety of our children. Call or email all school board trustees, our superintendent, our school principals, our mayor, and our city council members. They need to hear from more than a handful of concerned citizens. They need a FLOOD of letters, emails, and phone calls. Please take action!

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Ashlie Unruh is a Coeur d’Alene resident.