Schools Wish They Could Screen Teacher Backgrounds Better

With the ongoing court case of former St. Patrick Catholic High School teacher, William Richard Pryor, it raises the question of what schools are doing to prevent sexual predators from getting into our school systems.

St. Patrick High and the other schools Pryor worked for all conducted background checks, but because Pryor had never been convicted before, his record was clean. There was no way of knowing the teacher they were hiring was capable of molestation. School officials say they wish there was more they could to do to avoid cases like this, but unfortunately, sometimes people slip through the cracks.

Dr. Michael Ladner, Superintendent of Biloxi Catholic Diocese, says, “It’s kind of coming in under the radar. They’re under the radar because they haven’t been caught or convicted so no one would ever know. We’d need a crystal ball and not a fingerprint machine to determine those kinds of things.”

Pryor’s case will be turned over to a grand jury.