NYC's 'Shameful' Vetting Process Failed To Stop Alleged Pedophile From Lying His Way Into Schools Job

David Hay, the NYC education official charged with allegedly trying to have sex with a 14-year-old, managed to secure a top city position without ever receiving a completed Department of Investigation background check. But according to a new report, the city's current vetting process is so broken, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

Anastasia Coleman, the special commissioner of investigation for the city’s school district, says that Hay made more than a dozen false statements during his background check with the city. According to the report, the lies concerned his time as a Wisconsin high school principal, a position he was forced to resign in 2011 for allegedly misusing a school credit card and because he lacked the state's required license.

The investigation did not turn up past complaints of sexually inappropriate behavior from Hay, who was hired by NYC in 2016, and promoted as the deputy chief of staff to the schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, in 2018.

Hay was fired following his arrest in December for allegedly using a computer to facilitate a sex crime, after an undercover investigation caught him trying to meet a 14-year-old boy for sex in a Wisconsin hotel, police said.

The special commissioner's report, which was sent to Carranza on Monday, found that the standard background check would likely not have uncovered his lies about previous employment info even it had been completed — since DOE does not typically contact past employers and DOI doesn't verify employment beyond five years.

“SCI’s review of the DOE vetting process for high-level titles and sensitive positions revealed areas in need of improvement," said Coleman.

She recommended the DOE extend the scope of its background checks for certain high-level positions, and better streamline its questionnaire with the Department of Investigation.

Recent reporting over the incomplete vetting of Hay has revealed a major backlog of background checks at DOI. As of last week, the agency had 5,122 unreviewed senior government applications from other city agencies, according to City Council testimony delivered by DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett on Monday.

Garnett said she expects it to take as long as four years to close the backlog — a delay that Councilman Ritchie Torres, who chairs the investigations committee, called "embarrassing."

Garnett conceded that the current process is "shameful," calling it a "dereliction of DOI’s responsibility to the hiring agencies and to the city as a whole."

Garnett said the department does a cursory social media search of applicants, but generally does not actively reach out to the applicants' past employer. Having done so would likely have resulted in a more thorough investigation and eventual rejection of Hay's application, Garnett admitted.

UPDATE: Following publication of this story, a spokesperson for the DOE told Gothamist: "Mr. Hay passed a criminal background check, was immediately fired when he was arrested, and SCI found no wrongdoing on behalf of the City. We followed all protocols and procedures and will adopt SCI’s recommendations to ensure our hiring processes are as thorough as possible.”