Delaware certified bogus ‘doctorate degree’ in psychology for school therapist charged with raping 5-year-old girl

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

When Delaware’s Brandywine School District hired John Ervin Arnold as a trauma therapist for K–5 students in October 2021, officials were impressed by his master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from Ohio University.

Arnold was new to Delaware, having recently moved to suburban Wilmington from Lee County, Florida, where his resume showed he worked as a therapist.

Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawson said that while Arnold had not worked in a school setting, his “doctorate” and more than a decade of related experience in Florida boosted his candidacy.

Arnold even had a framed copy of the diploma, which showed that on May 27, 2013, Ohio University had awarded him the degree of “Doctor of Philosophy,” with “Clinical Psychology” in smaller type.

The “licensure and certification team” at the Delaware Department of Education later issued Arnold and the district a letter that recognized his “Doctorate Degree.”

That certification allowed Arnold to earn several thousand more dollars a year than he would have received with lesser degrees. Last year, he was paid $114,500.

A WHYY News investigation found, however, that the advanced degrees Arnold claimed — along with his framed diploma — are completely bogus.

Arnold, 47, never even attended Ohio University, let alone earned advanced degrees, a school spokesman said, adding that Arnold’s framed diploma “is not authentic.”

The issue of Arnold’s education and qualifications surfaced publicly last week in the wake of a much more serious matter — his arrest by New Castle County police on charges of first- and second-degree rape of a 5-year-old family member. The child revealed the alleged abuse in graphic detail during a “good touches and bad touches” discussion at her summer day camp.

The arrest affidavit also said another relative, now an adult, told a detective that Arnold had also sexually abused her several times more than a decade ago in western Maryland and Florida. He has not been charged in connection with that accusation.

Arnold is currently being held at the Howard Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington in lieu of $1.05 million bail.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday in Superior Court, but Arnold waived the proceeding. No trial date has yet been set.

Brandywine Superintendent Lawson, who was deputy superintendent when Arnold was hired nearly three years ago, stressed that the district’s initial internal investigation has not revealed any abuse of the kids Arnold worked with at Mount Pleasant, Lombardy and Claymont elementary schools.

Lawson said Brandywine is trying to determine whether officials could have done more to check Arnold’s academic record, and how they should check credentials claimed by future applicants.

But Lawson added she’s flabbergasted by the revelation that Arnold’s falsified degrees fooled the state certification office.

“I am shocked that he got through both processes, both at the district level and state level, with what appeared to be ease,” Lawson said Wednesday.

Purnima Montagne, who served as president of the Delaware Parent Teacher Association when Arnold worked for Brandywine, said people should be outraged by the state’s failure to figure out that the advanced degrees Arnold had claimed were fake.

“I don’t know whether this is a lackadaisical attitude [in the Department of Education] to want to enforce anything,” Montagne said. “They happily write laws and will quote them scripture and verse, but they won’t actually enforce them.”

Montagne said that if the state had done its job and rejected his fabricated academic credentials, Brandywine could have removed him within months of his hiring and kept him away from children at the three schools.

“It’s devastating,” Montagne said. “It makes you nervous to send your kids to school.”

Arnold never ‘attended or earned degree from Ohio University’

After police announced his arrest, WHYY News spoke with three close relatives who said Arnold never lived in Ohio or went to college there, either in person or virtually.

When WHYY News initially asked Lawson last week about Arnold’s possible falsification of his resume, she said the state — not the district — is responsible for verifying academic credentials that allow educators to get salary enhancements.

“The ultimate verifier of doctoral degrees, and master’s degrees … is the Delaware Department of Education,” Lawson said. “We have a letter on file from DDOE that verifies every employee’s graduate credential/licensure in order for that employee to be paid at the doctoral level.”

The state’s searchable public certification website, known as DEEDS (Delaware Educator Data System), shows that Arnold has a master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Ohio University’s main campus in the town of Athens. No doctorate in philosophy is listed.

While waiting for an answer from Ohio University last week about whether Arnold graduated or attended the school, WHYY News asked the Department of Education how officials certified that he had the degrees he had claimed.

A reporter also informed the state that relatives said he never lived in Ohio and the school did not offer advanced psychology degrees online.

Education Secretary Mark Holodick, a former Brandywine superintendent, and other state education officials would not agree to be interviewed about Arnold and his credentials.

But spokesperson Alison May replied in writing that Arnold’s “applications for graduate salary increments were validated by DDOE. Ohio University did offer this doctorate at the time of his attendance.”

May’s email did not explain how the state verified the degrees.

Dan Pittman, Ohio University’s communications director, later confirmed, however, that Arnold never “attended, or earned a degree from, Ohio University at any time.”

WHYY News shared that disclosure by the university with May, who several hours later sent a written statement acknowledging that the salary boost based on Arnold having a doctorate “was approved in error.”

May added that the state was trying to determine how that occurred.

“The department will be investigating how this approval was made and how to improve practices and our systems checks to prevent this kind of error from happening again,” May wrote. “We are alerting law enforcement, who will manage any investigation into potential false documentation.”

May also shared the state’s regulation for approving advanced degrees, and offered a partial explanation of how Arnold was able to exploit the state’s certification system.

The rule specifies that transcripts can be submitted by the university directly to the district, but that the state “in its discretion may also accept verification of an official transcript by other means if the authenticity of the transcript can be made.”

In Arnold’s case, May wrote that he applied for the higher salary when he was hired in October 2021, and “the transcripts used for this graduate salary increment (GSI) approval were submitted by the applicant directly.”

The state issued the approval letter in July 2022, and made his salary boost retroactive to his hiring date nine months earlier.

“The Department of Education recognizes your education level as a Doctorate Degree,” said the approval letter to Arnold and shared with Brandywine. WHYY News obtained the letter under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Asked for further explanation of how the fake transcripts were approved, May wrote that the state “can answer questions related to its findings once complete.”

Montagne said that in the past, when similar issues arose with an educator’s credentials, there usually weren’t “any repercussions. People are shocked and then nothing happens.”

But in Arnold’s case, where someone who faked advanced degrees has been charged with repeatedly raping a child, those responsible for the “ludicrous” error need to be disciplined and possibly fired, she said.

“Delaware’s a small state, so this wasn’t lost in bureaucracy,” Montagne said. “This is probably one or two people that aren’t doing their job. I don’t understand the reluctance that we have to just move on from people that are incompetent.”

Lawon said the debacle with Arnold’s degrees makes it painfully obvious that it’s time for the state, as well as all 19 Delaware school districts and charter schools, to double down on verifying that job candidates aren’t faking their credentials.

“This circumstance causes us all to look at our processes and procedures,” Lawson said. “After seeing what Ohio University wrote, what can we all do to make sure that this doesn’t happen again?”