NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Convicted felon, sex offender, serial liar and fraudster, Freddie Dean Smith is alive and well and currently working as the Student Services Coordinator for the Clara I. Adams Honors College at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Morgan State, a state-owned HBCU, ranks among the Top 20 Historically Black College and Universities in the United States.
Smith serves as the Morgan State advisor for the National Honor Society Phi Eta Sigma, a national honor society for first-year college students. He is a member of the steering committee for the 5K Study Abroad Fund, administered by the Morgan State University Foundation.
Smith is scheduled to represent Morgan State at the annual conference of the National Association of African-American Honors Program in November in North Carolina. The NAAAHP website lists Smith as “Dr. Freddie Smith Parliamentarian”. Smith’s doctorate was revoked in 2009 following a plagiarism investigation by the University of Virginia Curry School of Education.
Morgan State officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on how Smith was hired despite requirements for an employment and criminal background check for school administrators.
An employee in the Morgan State human resources department, speaking on background, said the school contracts with HireRight, a leading background check service provider based in Irvine, California.
How this “bad penny” keeps turning up in new education positions year after year is a testament to the inability or unwillingness of educational institutions to conduct even the simplest of background checks, thereby, in this case, exposing students, staff and the public to a convicted felon with over a dozen criminal convictions including multiple sex crimes, and stalking.
Smith’s litany of transgressions is well-known to Talk of the Sound readers:
Smith has claimed he is the grandson of George Edward Chalmers Hayes, one of the lawyers in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Hayes niece has flatly denied this, telling Talk of the Sound her uncle had no children.
Smith has falsely claimed he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. The school told Talk of the Sound he never attend the school.
Smith has displayed photos of himself in his office wearing a Phillips Exeter Academy sweatshirt and a photo of George Edward Chalmers Hayes to complete the effect.
Smith has falsely claimed to have received various academic awards, scholarships and fellowships including supposed awards for his revoked doctorate.
Smith was fired as Superintendent of Pocantico Hills, NY School District for plagiarism. Smith’s doctorate was revoked by the University of Virginia Curry School of Education due to extensive plagiarism. As a result, Smith made threats to harm the Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Smith’s photo was circulated among UVA security to prevent him from getting onto their campus.
Smith falsified a copy of his old UVA transcript, changing the date, to claim he still had his doctorate to obtain an administrative license in the State of Maryland, a license later revoked following an investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s office and the Maryland Department of Education based on reporting by Talk of the Sound.
Smith has lied about being a professor at the University of South Carolina and at Clarion University in Pennsylvania.
Smith has been banned by State Education departments in Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland as well as New York City.
Smith has been fired from multiple positions (two in New York, one Pennsylvania, and one in Maryland) for lying on his job application.
Smith has been criminally convicted more than a dozen times including a felony conviction in Virginia and two sex crimes convictions in South Carolina. His convictions include misdemeanor charges of Assault, Sex/Peeping Tom, Check Fraud, Trespassing without Permission, Driving with a Suspended License (more than 1st), Larceny, Failure to Appear, Stalking, Disorderly Conduct, Driving with a Suspended License (2nd), Obstruction of Justice and 1 felony charge of Eluding Police/Endangering a Police Officer.
As a result of reporting by Talk of the Sound, Smith fired as Interim Vice Principal of Chester High School outside Philadelphia, as director of Pupil Personnel Service for the Troy School District outside Albany, New York, Assistant Principal for the Biondi School at Leake & Watts in Yonkers, New York and as an administrator at The Baltimore Teachers Network, a charter school operator in the Baltimore City Public School district.
The list goes on.
And so does Smith.
The question remains, why?
RELATED:
Convicted felon hired as vice principal of Chester High School
http://6abc.com/news/convicted-felon-hired-as-vice-principal-of-chester-high-school/1973641/
Baltimore Charter School Operator Fires Freddie Dean Smith Following TOTS Investigation
http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/getting-results-baltimore-charter-school-operator-fires-freddie-dean-smith-following-tots