New Canaan High School officials on Monday said an assistant basketball coach arrested over the weekend is no longer employed by the district.
According to NCHS Athletic Director Jay Egan, the coach—Jose Amor, of Stamford—had “passed the mandatory background check necessary for employment in the New Canaan Public Schools.”
“The New Canaan Public Schools has an extensive background check for all employees and will continue to use this system for all future hires,” Egan said in an email addressed to the ‘New Canaan Public Schools Community.’
According to The Advocate, Stamford police found Amor to be in possession of 20 bags of heroin and charged with possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Formerly a basketball coach at Westhill High School, Amor also had been arrested in 2016 following accusations that he had tipped off one of his players there that he was a suspect in a shooting, leading to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with police. Amor’s criminal record in that matter was erased one year ago after he completed a short “accelerated rehabilitation” program, though Google search returns related to the incident remain high.
The Rams boys’ varsity basketball team finished 2-14 versus FCIAC competition in the season just ended.
“Extensive background check”… seriously Mr. Egan?
50 bags of heroin — I guess we are #1 in drug dealers
I just googled Jose Amor of Stamford and read about his prior arrest in June of 2016 in Stamford. At the time he was an assistant basketball coach at Westhill High School:
https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Stamford-school-employee-suspended-after-arrest-8334520.php
Maybe we need to examine exactly what comprises a “mandatory background check”. Clearly, something is lacking.
Even a rudimentary background screening would have turned this coach up as a red flag. But this seems like an overblown problem as he was a short term coach in a school system where the slightest infraction gets reported to admin.. It looks like the guy wanted to get caught, as a dumb criminal. With the rampant opioid and drug epidemic, there must be a dozen cases like this for every one that gets caught.
Even substitute teachers have to pay for their own recent background checks before they get called in for the $100 a day jobs in the schools here. Plus they want subs. to have masters or some other advanced degree or certifications. If anything the administrators have been too aggressive in the past, this looks like an anomaly.
You would think that serious infractions or felonies would quickly get filed with the school oversight bodies.