An R.K. Smith physical education teacher who was recently arrested for molesting a student was arrested in 1997 and forced to resign from the Army, according to federal arrest records.
Troy W. Quinn, 41, was arrested on Friday, May 4 and charged with three counts of molestation and one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile after a student told her mother Quinn molested her.
Federal arrest records reveal Quinn was arrested in 1997 when he was a member of the Army for “fraud against the U.S. Government.”
The charges against Quinn were dropped when he agreed to resign from the Army instead of undergoing a court martial, the military’s version of a criminal trial.
Quinn came to St. Charles Parish Public Schools in 2010 after working in public education in Alabama.
Gwen Hitt, Human Resources Director at St. Charles Parish Public Schools, said the school system ran a background check on Quinn through the state police when he applied at the school, but it did not reveal the arrest and fraud charge.
“We did everything that we normally do,” Hitt said. “We checked his references. I have his previous evaluations. We ran our fingerprinting process that we normally do. Everything checked out and he has glowing recommendations.”
Felicia Gomez, Assistant Superintendent of secondary schools and quality assurance in St. Charles, said Quinn’s file indicated he received an honorable discharge from the military and made no mention of his arrest and resignation.
“We certainly look for anything that would suggest this person does not have the character that we would want to hire,” Gomez said. “So anytime we would have any of that information we would seek further information.”
Hitt said if the school system had known about Quinn’s full arrest record they may have given his hiring more scrutiny.
“If we would have found out anything to the nature that we would have thought that he was not of a character of a teacher that we would hire in St. Charles Parish, we definitely would have looked into it,” Hitt said.
However, Hitt said her office does not plan on changing how they run background checks.
“We have a standard procedure for our background checks and that is certainly what we’ll continue to do,” Hitt said.
Louisiana State Police Public Information Commander Capt. Doug Cain said their background check procedure has tightened up since Quinn’s hiring. Cain said only a month after Quinn was hired the law changed and now requires federal arrest records to be included in their report on any potential public school employee.
Quinn is currently being held on $200,000 bond at the Nelson Coleman Correctional Center. His arraignment is set for July 5.
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