ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has confirmed that a local high school hall monitor, accused of breaking a student's elbow during a scuffle, is a former NFL player with an arrest record.
Fourteen-year-old Raquan Ford’s father showed us a picture of his son's arm in a cast.
Initially district leaders didn’t respond to the allegations, but Thursday Channel 2’s Aaron Diamant sat down for an exclusive interview with Atlanta Public Schools human resources director. She admits she was alarmed by the incident at Booker T. Washington High School, and was just as concerned about what Diamant discovered about the staffer's past.
“Obviously when this occurs it concerns us all and we know that we have to take swift action,” HR Director Pamela Hall said.
Ahmad Carroll is a former first round NFL draft pick, and a Douglas High School standout. In 2007, Atlanta police arrested Carroll on drug and gun charges. He got sentenced to two years’ probation under the state's first offender laws, and then the conviction was dismissed. Legally, Carroll has no felony record.
"Obviously people make mistakes, and they have the right to recover from those mistakes and we want those people to be employed, but it is a different situation when you are employing individuals for a school district. That has to be at a higher standard and when you're working with kids then there are certain pieces and parts of a person's background that cannot be tolerated,” Hall said.
District leaders told Diamant that Carroll’s arrest history did not show up on a background check, and they're not happy they didn't know about it.
“We were able to find that with a Google Search in three seconds…is that a process HR goes through?" Diamant asked Hall. "A Google search is not a process for every employee, we do it sporadically. Obviously, it wasn't done in this case,” she said.
Hall says the district will now run that online search and a social media search for every new employee.
"I can't say that we would have denied him employment, but certainly we would have understood the circumstances,” Hall said when asked if knowing his history would’ve changed their initial decision to hire Carroll.
Atlanta police filed a misdemeanor battery charge against Carroll. The district put Carroll, who was hired just a month ago, on administrative leave while this all gets sorted out.
Diamant’s calls to Carroll were not returned Thursday.