PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU/CNN) – An Oregon middle school teacher disciplined for misconduct after a history of inappropriate contact with female students has easily found a job teaching in another state.
Paul Mulloy taught humanities at Conestoga Middle School in Beaverton for nearly five years.
In 2016 parents and education officials say he repeatedly communicated inappropriately with students after they moved on to high school.
Maureen Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Beaverton School District, said, “While he might have been mentoring and answering questions and encouraging students, it went beyond his role as a teacher.”
Oregon’s Teacher Standards and Practices Commission–the TSPC–said Mulloy sent one female high school student more than 150 emails after receiving a letter telling him to stop.
Investigators said one sent at 12:19 a.m. on a Saturday said, “You’re smart, beautiful, kind, fun to be around… you will have plenty of success.”
They said others were sent late on school nights.
“There was just further concern for not following directives and not being forthright,” said Wheeler. “So he resigned from the district in October of 2016.”
On the day he resigned KATU discovered the Rapid City area school district in South Dakota hired Mulloy as a substitute, despite running federal and state background checks the district’s HR director said, “We did not have knowledge of any allegations of misconduct in Oregon when reviewing his application. If we would have, he would not have been employed through the Rapid City area school district.”
The TSPC suspended Mulloy’s teaching license for 30 days last year and published the final stipulated order on its website in November.
They say they put the action on a national database, which the Rapid City School District said they did not access.
Seth Morrisey is president of Oregon Web Solutions, which he said helps companies become easier to find on search engines.He says the TSPC’s website needs improvement in large part because reports posted on their site are uploaded as pictures of documents, which makes it tough for search engines to find them.
A U.S. Education Department spokesman said he’s unaware of any federal database where Schools and districts are required to report non-criminal misconduct unless it’s a civil rights violation.
While former teacher Paul Mulloy was disciplined for misconduct, he was not accused or charged with any crimes.
He now works at a call center and says he has no plans to return to education.
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