School thwarts fake teacher

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

A man posing as a substitute teacher tried to get into a classroom at Valley High School Monday and stole a notebook containing the names and Social Security numbers of several actual substitutes, Clark County School District officials confirmed this morning.

The man, who gave his name as Ray Smith, showed up at Valley's main office Monday and asked what classroom he was assigned to, said George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the district. When the administrative assistant checked the roster of the day's substitutes in the district computer, the man was not listed, Rice said. She then asked for his Social Security number in order to search again, Rice said.

The Social Security number was later determined to be bogus, Rice said. All substitute teachers and school employees are required to wear photo ID badges when on campus, Rice said. The man who showed up at Valley's office did not have a district-issued ID, Rice said.

The administrative assistant called the district's human resources office, who told her they had no record of the man working as a substitute in Clark County and advised her to call school police, Rice said.

While the assistant was doing that, she turned her back to the front desk, and at that time the man apparently stole a notebook containing the names and Social Security numbers of Valley's preferred substitutes, Rice said.

The administrative assistant kept the book for her own convenience. It is not district policy to list names or Social Security numbers outside of the main computer database, Rice said.

"This was not normal business procedure to have something like that out in public view," Rice said. "She made a mistake."

The district's substitute services office is working with Valley High to try and contact individuals whose names may have been in the assistant's book and warn them about the possibility of identity theft, Rice said.

"We have no idea who this man is or what he wanted," Rice said.

The good news, Rice said, is that the school's security measures to prevent strangers from gaining access to classrooms worked, Rice said. A letter has gone out to every school warning them about the individual who showed up at Valley, Rice said.

The Clark County School District maintains a pool of about 2,500 substitutes, and 500 to 1,000 are called on a daily basis to fill in for regular classroom teachers. Substitutes must undergo the same FBI background checks as full-time staff and are paid $90 a day.