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LHU professor fighting termination based on nearly 30-year-old sexual abuse conviction

From PennLIVE

WILLIAMSPORT — A crime committed nearly 30 years ago brought an abrupt end to the academic career of a math department chair and he now wants a state university to pay.

Charles Morgan contends he should not have been required to undergo the background check that resulted in his April 16, 2016, removal from the classroom at Lock Haven University and subsequent firing.

The background check revealed Morgan, at age 19 in 1989 in Kentucky, was charged with sexual abuse, convicted and served three years, nine months in prison during which he completed a treatment program for sex offenders.

Morgan went to college after getting out of prison, graduating cum laude in 1995 from the University of Louisville with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

He received his doctorate in 2003, also in mathematics, from Michigan State University.

When he applied to Lock Haven following year the only question he was required to answer regarding a criminal past was had been convicted within the previous 10 years. He answered truthfully he had not.

Lock Haven hired him as an assistant professor and he rose through the ranks, becoming chair of the mathematics department in 2011. He had been granted tenure in 2009.

Morgan has been fighting his termination but he has not been reinstated despite an arbiter ruling last July Lock Haven did not have just cause to fire him.

The arbiter in the case between the State System of Higher Education and the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) directed Lock Haven not to assign him to classes or programs that admit high school students.

The reason Morgan has not been reinstated is the matter still is in the courts, Lock Haven spokesperson Elizabeth Arnold said.

She was referring to the complaint Morgan filed in U.S. Middle District Court seeking reinstatement and damages.

In his suit Morgan contends he should not have been required to undergo the 2016 background check and cites 2014 amendments to the Child Protective Services Law in support of his position.

Those amendments required school employees to obtain child abuse and state and federal criminal history clearances. Anyone found to have committed a crime listed in the amendments was to be terminated immediately.

Those amendments were not to apply to college faculty members whose direct contact with students is limited to enrolled students or prospective ones visiting the campus.

However, the State System on Dec. 31, 2014, issued a directive requiring each of its universities, including Lock Haven, to implement criminal background screening policies for all employees.

The APSCUF challenged the policy and Commonwealth Court initially issued an injunction prohibiting the screening.

Subsequently a compromise was reached whereby clearances were to be required only of those faculty teaching 100-level courses in which non-enrolled minors could take.

But, Lock Haven adopted a policy requiring background clearances for current faculty, staff, coaches and student employees. Those who did not comply were subject to discipline, including termination.

Morgan was required to submit to a background check in February 2016 and it disclosed his criminal past that resulted in his termination. He was told his duties included teaching 100 level courses and the math department hosted an academic program for high school students.

Morgan objected, claiming as a tenured professor he did not have any regular contact with students under the age of 18.

In his recently filed federal court amended complaint, he claims a nearly 28-year-old conviction does not warrant termination after 12 years of exemplary employment.

The Centre County resident also questions why he could not be assigned just 200 level and above courses.

The suit claims Michael Fiorentino Jr., who recently retired as Lock Haven president, admitted during a grievance hearing that the revisions in the law did not require Morgan’s termination.

The decision to fire him was motivated by a desire to preserve the university’s reputation and Morgan’s continued employment at Lock Haven would have been “difficult to explain,” Fiorentino is alleged to have said.

Morgan is believed to be the first State System employee to challenge in court his firing due to revisions in the Child Protective Services Law, spokesman Kenn Marshall said.

A number of employees refused initially to submit to background checks but did so later, he said. Issues that arose with several employees due to the checks were worked out, he said.

APSCUF through spokesperson Kathryn Morton would not say if the union is backing Morgan in his bid for reinstatement.

“We are just learning about his lawsuit; regardless, we won’t comment on ongoing litigation involving personnel matters,” she said.

Besides reinstatement, Morgan is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages to cover such things as loss of prospective employment and reputation destruction.

He claims he is being portrayed unfairly as a sexual predator and pedophile.

Defendants besides the State System and the university are Fiorentino and Deana L. Hill, associate vice president of human resources at Lock Haven.

Morgan contends without court intervention, the defendants will continue their “erroneous reading, implementation and application” of the amendments to other State System faculty and discharge others absent sufficient justification for the protection of minors.

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