My Two Bahts Worth.

In response to the flood of emails asking if I know John Karr, if he worked at my school, or if I had ever interviewed him, well, the answer is no. But I had to think hard about this to find the answer, as I have interviewed many individuals similar to him for a position in Kindergarten. Scary.

The thing is, in Thailand, there is no check to look at someone's history in their own country. Everyone living in Thailand has a story, and has reason for being here. And to tell you the truth, about 80 percent of people I have met are running from something. A messy divorce, the responsibility of children, the burden of aging parents, and in a couple of cases, well, the law. Mostly in small harmless things, but it is still something that is marked on this person's record, and should be checked by Thai authorities before this person is given a job to educate the country's children.

For instance. Last year we had to fire a teacher at our school who stole hundreds of thousands of baht worth of things from foreign teachers and students. Mobile phones, a laptop, cameras, flash drives (two of which were my 512 mb flashdrives with irreplaceable photos from the tsunami.) He admitted to this after some questioning, and said that the one instance in which he was caught red handed was isolated. He had a three year old beautiful daughter who was my student. When he was working at our school the foreign staff supervisor dug out his resume and called his previous places of employment, to find that he was staying late and taking apart the computers in the school, replacing he expensive parts with cheaper ones and selling the good parts or a profit. Funny, he used to boast about how he would stay late after everyone else was gone after school. I heard about six months ago that he was finally caught by some security cameras, and was sentenced to seven years in Thai prison (like 100 years in a Western prison). About a month later I heard that he paid his way out, for a small fee not exceeding 100,000 baht ($2,500.) Wills of steel, these Thai authorities.

It's quite scary though, to think about all the teachers teaching in high paying jobs in Bangkok who have no background check. It is sometimes obvious to the person interviewing. Let me give you some examples. Keep in mind all of these people were being interviewed for a position in Kindergarten.

-I had a guy come in wearing construction boots and a ripped shirt, stoned. I was wearing a suit.

-Dr. Whoever. He was a PhD from a University that didn't exist, and his dissertation wasn't to be found anywhere, even at the link he gave me. (I checked everything.) Yes, please look after these small children.

-sweaty men

-possibly drunk men

-sex tourists

All looking for a decent job looking after little girls and boys. I think it is time something is done to check. After al, if I was looking for a job in Canada, I couldn't walk in and get a job without being looked into!

ps, as a side-note, I just read this:

"The 41-year-old teacher sat in a business class window seat next to Mark Spray, an investigator with the Boulder County District Attorney's office.
Before takeoff, he sipped champagne. During dinner, Karr had pate, salad with walnut dressing and fried king prawn with steamed rice and broccoli. Karr had a beer before a glass of French chardonnay with the main course. "

Are you kidding me?

Update: After seeing on the news this morning that it is official, he was in fact working at Bangkok Christian College, I would like to add that this school called me four times in one day asking, pleading and begging me to go there to work for them, after an experimental resume post on the internet as I was searching for teachers for myself. I wanted to see how many calls and emails people would get from schools if they simply posted a resume and phone number saying, "hey, I'm white." So you can see how easy it is to get a job at a school in Bangkok. Go ahead, post your own resume, and see the feedback you get! www.ajarn.com