Schools - Courier - High School athletic director on hot seat over omission

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Published in the Courier News, Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Omission on application puts focus on athletic director

By CHAD WEIHRAUCH
Staff Writer

The Plainfield school district's athletic director failed to disclose on his job application that he previously was fired for hosting two parties for high-school girls' basketball players at which alcohol was available and for falling asleep in bed with teenage girls after both parties.

Asked in 2001 if he had "ever been dismissed, asked to resign or have any contract of employment not renewed," John Ahern, who is also the district's supervisor of physical education and health, checked a box saying "No."

But Ahern had been fired from one job in New Jersey -- and was nearly terminated from another in New York -- because of public backlash stemming from the parties involving alcohol and female high-school students 20 years ago at his former home in Brick.

His hiring in Plainfield in 2001 points to possible gaps in the system used to check the backgrounds of prospective district employees.

The incidents came to light again recently after parents upset with Ahern over high-school sports issues sent an unsigned letter March 18 to the school board detailing his past and asking why he had been hired.

"More importantly, how many more people do we have in our district who you have not done careful background checks on?" said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Courier News.

"Until this information came out, they felt like there was nothing the board could do," said Ron Feldhun, a former assistant football coach at the high school who has been involved in a dispute with the athletic director over coaching issues.

Ahern declined to comment on his job application or the anonymous letter.

Middletown job lost

Ahern has lost at least one job -- and was blasted years later by New York school officials -- because of a 1985 incident that occurred during his time as a math instructor at a Monmouth County high school.

According to accounts published in the Asbury Park Press, he was a teacher and girls basketball coach at High School South in Middletown in 1985 when he hosted two parties for his players that involved alcohol at his home in Brick.

There were several other coaches and instructors at the parties in February and March 1985, along with about 15 girls. A few underage players testified they drank beer at Ahern's home, but teachers said they did not directly serve it to students, the newspaper reported.

Ahern, then about 30 years old, also was accused of falling asleep in his bed with teenage girls after the gatherings -- but he denied any inappropriate behavior and was never charged with any crime, the newspaper reported.

He said afterward that he had possibly allowed himself to get too close to his students, but he said they continued to support him despite the allegations, according to the articles.

"Nobody outside the clique would understand. In retrospect, I guess it would be tough to say I'd do the same thing again. Maybe there was poor judgment," he said in an interview published in November 1985.

According to the Asbury Park Press, more than half a dozen other school district employees, including an assistant basketball coach who admitted kissing two 17-year-old girls at the parties, also were disciplined or fired after the incidents.

Ahern was fired from his post in Middletown, and according to newspaper reports, his New Jersey teaching credentials were revoked a few years later.

Teaching license revoked

In August 1986, Ahern filed an application to teach in New York City and was hired at New Dorp High School in Staten Island. State education officials said he indicated on the employment form that he had never been in trouble with a previous employer, The New York Post reported.

The school board in Staten Island found out about the New Jersey charges a year later. He was not terminated, but the New York Department of Education revoked his teaching license in 1989.

The New York Post reported that in 1987, New York City Board of Education employees did not need a state license to teach in the city; that policy changed in 1992.

Ahern continued working in New York schools for about a decade, ending up as a dean at Wingate High School in Brooklyn in 1998.

When the incident came to light that year, he was removed from his teaching position and placed in an administrative position.

Edward Stancik, New York's special schools investigator, reportedly investigated Ahern after the educator's ex-wife told officials of his past. Stancik excoriated school officials for their lack of oversight.

"As a result of the board's incomprehensible refusal to act, a teacher who engaged in completely unacceptable behavior, who was fired as a result, who lied to conceal this fact and whose credentials have been revoked in two states, is now a tenured teacher and dean in the New York City school system," Stancik said.

According to Rich Vespucci, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Education, Ahern regained his teaching certification in the Garden State in 1998, after a state agency "reviewed evidence of rehabilitation."

After a brief stint as athletic director at Belvidere High School, he applied for the same job in Plainfield in 2001.

At that point, he again checked a box on his application denying he had ever been dismissed or asked to resign from any job. He was hired the same year.

No official comment

Last week, Plainfield school administrators declined to comment on Ahern's employment or the district's hiring policies.

District spokesman Louis Rivera said Ahern was approved by the school board under former Superintendent Larry Leverett -- and therefore the current schools chief, Paula Howard, who arrived in the district in 2003, could not talk about it.

"She really can't comment on it," Rivera said.

A labor attorney for the district, Mark Tabenkin, also declined comment, citing the matter as a personnel issue.

Board of Education President Agurs Linward Cathcart Jr. declined comment on Ahern's employment or whether officials were considering taking action because of the omission on his application.

The district job application signed by Ahern indicates an employee can be discharged for providing an "incorrect, incomplete or false statement."

But Cathcart acknowledged school board members have received questioning letters that contained news articles about Ahern's past.

"We did receive some information, but this is a personnel matter, so I can't comment on it right now," he said.

Feldhun, who was an assistant football coach at Plainfield High School from 1994 to 1998, said parents initially were upset with Ahern about a coaching spat last year. Some administrators, Ahern among them, advocated hiring another head football coach to replace Clinton Jones, leading to vocal protest at several school board meetings.

The board voted to keep Jones as coach for 2005-06.

Feldhun added he went to the school board about the perception Ahern played favorites or displayed "potential racism" toward some coaches beginning in 2004.

After the Jones flap last year, Feldhun said angry parents tracked down information about Ahern and brought it to the board. But he said it is "beyond his understanding" that officials so far have taken no action.a"

Chad Weihrauch can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or cweihrau@gannett.com

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