MORE RED FLAGS: School board hired illegal alien superintendent, despite being aware of major lie on resume

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From the Associated Press: The superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district, who was detained last week by immigration agents, falsely claimed a doctoral degree when applying for the job two years ago but was hired even after the school board learned about the misrepresentation.

Ian Roberts, who immigration authorities say was living and working in the U.S. illegally and who resigned this week as Des Moines’ superintendent of schools, claimed in his 2023 application that he received a doctorate in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University in 2007, according to documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request.

Although Roberts was enrolled in that doctorate program from 2002 to 2007, the school’s public relations office confirmed in an email that he didn’t receive that degree. It declined to say which degree requirements he hadn’t met.

The Des Moines school board learned before hiring Roberts that he hadn’t received the degree, but it still chose him to lead the district, which serves about 30,000 students.

A third party had conducted a background check on Roberts, which was not accessible to the public.

Des Moines school district spokesman Phil Roeder admitted to the AP, “As part of the background check process that was done at the time, it indicated that he did not complete — he began but did not complete a degree from Morgan State.”

The school said the initial resume Roberts had provided indicated he had earned a doctorate from Morgan State, but that the background check revealed he had never actually received the degree.

Now, school board chair Jackie Norris, who staunchly defended Roberts when he was initially arrested, said, “The Des Moines School Board is also a victim of deception by Dr. Roberts, one on a growing list that includes our students and teachers, our parents and community, our elected officials and Iowa’s Board of Educational Examiners, and others.”

Civil rights attorney Laura Powell revealed that college degrees aren’t the only thing Roberts exaggerated about. Powell wrote in a post on X:

In older bios, Roberts claimed to be both a military officer and a police detective. Later, he dropped these credentials, which seemed odd for someone so boastful. They resurfaced in 2022 after reports that he had violated Pennsylvania gun laws. In response, Roberts issued a statement describing himself as “a trained Commissioned Military Officer with a wealth of experience in firearms training and safety.”

A self-published book last year provided more details. Roberts wrote that, after graduating from officer candidate school in Guyana at age 22, he was assigned to the “Quick Reaction Group,” also known as “Black Clothes” or—chillingly—“The Death Squad.”

Yes, he really used the term “Death Squad.”

In the book, Roberts claimed he was trained to use any means necessary, including killing, to protect the government’s interests. He described being conditioned to put aside empathy and act as a “trained assassin,” though he tried to soften the picture by saying he disciplined subordinates when there was evidence of extrajudicial killings.

Maybe he was exaggerating to sound tough. He’s fabricated so much else about his background that it wouldn’t be surprising if this too was a lie. And I do have doubts about his claim that he “served on the security detail for Queen Elizabeth Il” when she visited Guyana in 1994. But why admit to something as horrifying as serving in a “Death Squad” if it weren’t true?

There is some corroboration for his law enforcement experience. The AP interviewed a retired Guyanese police commissioner who recalled Roberts in the 1990s, before he emigrated. And at yesterday’s press conference, his attorney—who by all accounts is a respected figure—confirmed that Roberts had graduated from military school and participated in raids targeting violent criminals as a police officer.

As background, these Guyanese death squads emerged after a far-left party took power in 1992—the same year Roberts graduated from officer candidate school. The unit he said he belonged to was tasked with combating violent crime at a time that a serious crime waves was emerging in his county. These groups quickly became notorious, with human rights groups widely accusing them of assassinating alleged criminals instead of bringing them to court.

Perhaps Roberts’s claim that he resisted participating in extrajudicial killings contains a grain of truth. But one thing that seems clear is that he didn’t have the integrity to build a new life in America without breaking the law and deceiving people.

READ MORE fromthe Associated Press.

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