Disciplinary fallout continues from bogus degree of Delaware school therapist charged with child rape

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The revelation that former Delaware elementary school therapist John Arnold, who is accused of raping a 5-year-old family member, fabricated master’s and doctoral degrees has led to swift discipline for four education officials.

This month, the state Department of Education meted out unspecified discipline against one unidentified Licensure & Certification office employee, said spokeswoman Alison May. That employee “erroneously accepted an unofficial transcript’’ from Ohio University after Brandywine hired him in October 2021, May said.

A WHYY News investigation found that Arnold, who never attended the university, claimed that he had advanced degrees in psychology when he applied for the Brandywine therapist’s job, and even had a fabricated copy of a doctoral diploma.

Besides the state’s disciplinary action, Brandywine’s board has voted to fire a top district administrator and discipline Lombardy Elementary School’s principal and another unidentified district official over their mishandling of a complaint from a hospital child psychologist that Arnold’s credentials were suspect.

The state’s internal probe was triggered earlier this month by the WHYY News report about Arnold’s fabricated degrees. WHYY began investigating Arnold’s academic credentials after his arrest in July for raping a 5-year-old family member. Arnold, 47, is currently being held in Wilmington’s Howard R. Young Correctional Center on $1.05 million cash bail.

The state’s erroneous certification allowed Arnold to earn several thousand dollars more in salary. Arnold worked at Lombardy Elementary last academic year and was paid $114,500.

At Lombardy and previously Mount Pleasant Elementary, Arnold counseled and provided support for about two dozen students who experienced trauma or had other behavioral or emotional problems. He was working at Claymont Elementary during summer school when he was charged with first-degree rape and other offenses by New Castle County police.

No action after hospital psychologist questioned credentials

Arnold’s arrest also spurred Brandywine to re-examine his nearly three years with the district.

Officials learned that two months before Arnold’s arrest, a psychologist at Nemours Children’s Hospital near Wilmington had alerted four administrators from Lombardy and the Brandywine district that the qualifications Arnold claimed might be bogus.

The district launched an investigation in July and suspended the four officials with pay while an outside attorney reviewed the matter. The four officials included Lombardy principal Michael McDermott and Nicole Warner, district director of special education, WHYY News has learned from officials familiar with the matter.

Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawson, who was promoted from deputy superintendent days before Arnold’s arrest, told WHYY News earlier this month that officials made serious missteps, such as not notifying human resources officials about the Nemours complaints.

Beyond questioning Arnold’s credentials, the Nemours psychologist told Brandywine that Arnold had been confrontational with a hospital intern after insisting, even though he was not a licensed psychologist, that a young boy he was counseling had a mood disorder, Lawson told WHYY News. The hospital had diagnosed the child with autism.

Yet none of Nemours’ concerns reached Brandywine’s HR office, or Lawson herself, she said.

At Brandywine’s board meeting last week, members discussed the actions of the four employees behind closed doors in executive session, and later approved the district’s disciplinary recommendations at the public session.

Though the board didn’t name names and merely voted to “approve employee matter” 25-005, 25-006, 25-007, and 25-008, sources familiar with the matter said the members voted to terminate Warner, whose old post has been filled on an interim basis by Josette McCullough.

The sources said the board voted to dock pay from McDermott, who is back at work running Lombardy, where classes started Monday. Another unidentified district administrator received unspecified discipline. The district took no action against the fourth, unidentified employee.

Lawson would not confirm who was disciplined.

“What I can say is that, based on the third party investigator’s recommendation for disciplinary consequences, we moved forward accordingly based on those recommendations,’’ Lawson said Monday.

Lawson added that employees have 10 days to request a hearing on the district’s decisions.

The superintendent also said Arnold was fired in July and could have sought a hearing from prison, but did not. No date for his criminal trial has been set.

Before the board vote, Lawson apologized and expressed her “deep regret” to members and the public about the district’s mishandling of the Nemours complaint.

She promised “accountability for those actions” as well as “consistent and fair consequences for all employees.”

Lawson also said the district would be “revisiting our hiring processes in collaboration’’ with the state, enhancing training on “ethical conduct and students safety, and creating more robust channels for reporting concerns directly to human resources.”

‘Definitely disappointed’ the state certified Arnold’s fake degrees

Brandywine Board President Ralph Ackerman applauded Lawson for handling the matter “extremely well once it came to light,” but had harsh words for the state Licensure and Certification office.

“I’m definitely disappointed that the process of vetting” Arnold’s purported degrees “would be done incorrectly by the Department of Education, putting the district in this position,’’ Ackerman said.

When “the Department of Ed says, ‘Yes, this person’s credentials are good,’ well we’re going to jump at that because we need these people to help the children’’ with mental health needs, he added.

Ackerman said that he wants Brandywine to start doing supplemental checks “just to make sure whoever we’re hiring has whatever they say they have” as far as academic degrees and credentials.

Ackerman also said Brandywine would be developing a whistleblower policy so employees won’t hesitate to bring concerns forward.

“When you see something egregious, when you see something that doesn’t seem right to you,  don’t feel like you can’t elevate and escalate your concerns to human resources or to your immediate chain of command,’’ Ackerman said.

“And if you’re not satisfied with the answer you get from your immediate supervisor and you feel in your heart that something’s wrong, speak up,” he added. “Because it’s better you speak up and better we deal with it rather than it becoming a festering wound that hurts everybody.”

State Department of Education Secretary Mark Holodick, who previously was Brandywine’s superintendent, did not agree to repeated requests for an interview about how the state approved Arnold’s fake degrees, as well as the path forward.

Instead, Holodick’s spokeswoman May issued a written statement about how the state is trying to prevent another similar debacle.

May said the department has begun more training with state and local education employees who deal with licensing and certification, with a focus on “double-checks of transcripts for fraud for every submission.”

May said the state is currently verifying credentials for dozens of licensed school counselors,  social workers, psychologists, and therapists. That work includes re-checking their transcripts and any related licenses, and notifying districts and charter schools “if they have an unlicensed employee in place.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect new information provided to WHYY News about the officials who were disciplined.