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Monarch High School Principal quiet about teacher caught stealing student IDs
• What's stopping it from happening again?
Tuesday,
August 10, 2010
Former Monarch High Social Studies teacher, Sheyla Diaz, 44, made headlines in May for opening credit card accounts using personal information she stole from Monarch High students in Coconut Creek. She received six months of house arrest and lost her job.
When attempting to contact Monarch High Principal, James Neer, regarding policies put in place to prevent ID theft from happening to Monarch students in the future, Neer didn’t return MargateNews.net calls or emails for comment.
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Culling through media stories from CBS 4, NBC 6, WSVN 7, the Sun-sentinel, the Miami Herald and The Palm Beach Post, readers will find identical accounts of the Diaz incident across the six media giants - starting from when Diaz first pleaded guilty to ID theft in May to her sentencing in July - but no explanation as to why teachers are allowed access to such personal information, notwithstanding more than 50 South Florida teachers having been arrested, prosecuted or lost their license to teach in the past five years due to poor behavioral conduct.
Media coverage included no comments from Diaz’s victims or their parents, or statements from school officials regarding personal information security at Monarch – statements that might lead Monarch’s 2,100 students and their parents to believe that Social Security numbers, and other financial information pertinent to credit scores, would be safe in the future.
It’s not unusual for Broward County school officials not to return calls from news reporters. Most won’t go on the record for fear of losing their job if they say the 'wrong thing' - even it means not saying what needs to be said. Regardless, reporters have to keep trying, and every now and then a courageous few go on the record for the good of the whole.
Monarch High Principal, James Neer, isn’t one of them.
At what point to teachers gain access to student Social Security numbers? What are school hiring policies and procedures regarding teacher background checks? How was the situation handled internally by school officials? Did the PTA have a position on the matter? What were victim responses to the incident? What were students told by faculty and staff?
Should Monarch High Principal, James Neer, or other school official respond to questions regarding the Diaz incident, the public will be relieved. In the meantime, parents guard your child's personal information at Monarch High, especially if school officials have nothing to say over the protection of it.
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