Lower Moreland Responds To Charles Hurst Guilty Plea; Searching For New Assistant Principal

Former Lower Moreland assistant principal Charles Hurst pled guilty to two counts of corruption of a minor last week after sending inappropriate text messages to two 13-year-old boys. Hurst, 37, of Montgomery County, faces a possible maximum sentence of 5-10 years behind bars, and it’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to work in a school district ever again.

Lower Moreland, however, is doing its best to rebound from the unfortunate situation and will be looking for full-time replacement starting next week.

Hurst was hired by Lower Moreland in July 2010 after numerous background checks and interviews with former colleagues revealed no crimes or character issues. He moved ahead of almost 20 candidates who applied for the job and eventually was hired last summer.

Hurst’s improper actions occurred while he was employed at Pennbrook Middle School between January 2009 and August 2010. Hurst’s tenure at Lower Moreland was a short one once the district uncovered the disturbing information that he was talking to students about masturbation and using other sexual language via cell phone. He was quickly let go on Sept. 17.

“The underlying facts happened while he was at another school district,” Lower Moreland Superintendent Dr. Marykay Feeley said in an exclusive interview with Patch. “He was employed for a very brief time (at Lower Moreland). As soon we discovered what had happened, we prohibited him from any contact with the district or the students.”

There’s no one person solely responsibly for allowing Hurst to slip through the cracks. Hiring an assistant principal is complex and tedious process that requires three rounds of interviews.  

Lower Moreland spoke with administrators, supervisors and colleagues of Hurst’s at the North Penn School District, all of whom gave outstanding remarks about the “sexting” pedophile.

After background checks and numerous interviews, the final step of the hiring process involves members of the school board and the PTA.  

“There was absolutely nothing,” Feeley said, indicating his background check was clean. “And there are three different clearances we go through. And we also do extensive background checks as well … It was a hands-down (decision) that he was recommended.”

It has to be worrisome for all school districts – not just Lower Moreland – that educators with such a checkered past can easily go through multiple interviews and background checks without any of these red flags showing up.

Unfortunately for Lower Moreland, there’s only so much it can do if the background checks remain clear, especially since Hurst received rave reviews from his previous coworkers.

“Obviously it’s a concern any time something like that happens,” Feeley said. “As it relates to what we’ll do, we’ll continue to do everything we can to talk with people that may be affiliated with them and the official references. We have certainly done the due diligence of talking to the folks at North Penn and nothing came up.”

Lower Moreland was quick to act once those prior incidents at North Penn came up in the news. It dismissed the new assistant principal less than three months after he was hired.

“Our job is insuring quality education and making sure it’s delivered in a very safe environment,” Feeley said. “This is where is my intentions are directed.”

Along those same lines, Lower Moreland replaced Hurst with Greg Pezza and Brea D’Angelo. Pezza teaches Social Studies and Gifted Education while D’Angelo teaches English. Both teachers have been doing an outstanding job under the unusual circumstances and the district felt it wanted to continue with those two teachers for the remainder of the school year.

“Our intention is not to disrupt our students and their current situation,” Feeley said. “Our situation is working, and I’ll be looking forward to doing it the way we intended – with one person – but we’ve been doing it that long since the beginning of the October, and we feel we can finish out the school year.

“When you open up a position like this, typically the process takes about two months from start to finish,” Feeley added. “By the time you finish, you are looking at the busiest time of year.”

Feeley expects around the same number of candidates for the job this time around, but said Pezza and D’Angelo have gone “above and beyond” the expectations the district had for them.