Sub’s arrest spurs school policy change
New process requires greater sharing, quicker response from administrators
STAMFORD — A substitute teacher accused of destroying evidence during a police investigation into inappropriate contact with a student has spurred the city’s public schools to re-examine its policies.
A Stamford Public Schools spokeswoman said the district’s executive leadership team is reviewing an enhanced process for handling and documenting incidents that lead to substitute teachers getting banned from schools.
The new process will require administrators to provide additional documentation for a substitute to be banned from their school and for that information to be more widely shared and brought to the attention of human resources.
The policy is in response to the arrest of Norwalk resident Joseph Lombardo, 60, who turned himself in this month after being accused of deleting text messages to a Stamford High School student. The student accused Lombardo of touching her lips and repeatedly texting and calling her, according to his arrest affidavit.
Similar complaints were made about Lombardo when he was a substitute at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering and Westhill High School, the affidavit said. Lombardo was asked not to return to AITE, but continued to sub at other city schools for at least 10 days until the Stamford High complaint was filed with police and central office, the affidavit said.
Stephen Falcone, the district’s executive director of human resources, said he was not aware of the issues until the Stamford High complaint was filed. The affidavit said AITE contacted a member of the district’s HR department before the Stamford High complaint.
“We’re looking into the process here in-house to find out if something did fall through the cracks,” Falcone said. “We always look at subs when issues arise, whether it is warranted they return to a particular building, don’t return to a particular building or don’t return to the district at all.”
Falcone said the human resources department handles the application and screening process for each of the substitutes, who are paid $90 a day. Standard background checks are conducted, as well as screenings with the state Department of Children and Families and the FBI. The district also does fingerprint screenings and contacts former employers where the candidate had contact with children.
According to his arrest affidavit, Lombardo told police he was a teacher at J.M. Wright Technical School until 1995 when he was investigated for bigotry, brutality and sexual harassment involving improper touching. However, district officials said those accusations were not mentioned when they contacted Wright Tech.
Falcone said Lombardo did not raise any red flags until last spring. Lombardo was suspended while the district investigated the accusations and was terminated in May.
Falcone said these types of incidents are unusual even though there are as many as 200 substitutes working in the district each day. “We’re certainly going to look at our exclusion or blocking protocols just to make sure we are following up on all of those kind of issues that arise,” he said.
Board of Education members also raised concerns and discussed Lombardo’s arrest in a private session last week. Board chairman David Mannis said there will be public discussions about what the district has learned from the situation.
“My guess is we’re going to need a new policy,” he said. “Our district’s policy is airtight on this. That’s the only way to prevent this stuff from happening. If it takes a new policy, that’s what we’ll do.”
During the public portion of last week’s meeting, Mannis compared the incident to when two Stamford High administrators who were arrested in 2014 for not reporting an affair between a student and former teacher Danielle Watkins.
Falcone was suspended for a month for his handling of the Watkins case. “It was a real drag,” Mannis said, adding the scandal damaged the reputation of the district and the entire city. “Suffice it to say, it was real bad and it hasn’t been forgotten. It’s with real chagrin I see we are even close to touching this third rail again.”