A state investigation into Harford Schools’ hiring practices released Wednesday found that former Edgewood Middle School English teacher Lawrence Smith did truthfully answer questions related to his criminal background in his employment application, but did not give accurate details about his 15 pending federal charges to the school system. And, Harford Schools did nothing to research the charges before hiring Smith.

On his application, Smith described his charges as “theft” and “tax case” related, downplaying the “seriousness of the federal charges he faced, according to a report from the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education.

Smith was arrested in September 2023 and charged with the 15 felony counts involving tax evasion and collecting $215,000 in fraudulent overtime pay from when he worked as a Baltimore City Schools police detective. While he was awaiting trial on those charges, he was hired by Harford Schools as a long-term substitute in December 2024, then hired full-time in August. In mid-October, Smith pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion. At that time, Smith was placed on administrative leave by Harford Schools and later resigned.

Harford Schools’ hiring staff told Smith to keep them informed of his court dates; described his charges as “misdemeanors” and wrote that Smith was “good to proceed” through the hiring process, the report states.

“OIGE found in this case that HCPS staff relied more on the applicants’ explanations of their criminal charges and did not take any additional steps to research the charges listed,” the report said. “A simple Google search or consultation with HCPS Legal Counsel would have shown that the remaining charges for which the applicant had been indicted were, in fact, felonies, not the lesser misdemeanor offenses staff relied on.”

Following the controversy caused by Smith’s hiring and resignation late last year, former Board of Education President Aaron Poynton was in the process of drafting a policy that would have required all applicants with questionable convictions and pending criminal charges to be approved by the Board of Education before the district could hire them.

Poynton had said that the policy would directly address the hiring of anyone in Smith’s position in the future; however, Poynton never introduced the proposal due to his abrupt resignation the morning of Jan. 8 — hours after the school board voted to place Superintendent Sean Bulson on paid administrative leave due to a 911 call Bulson made from New Orleans in 2024, surfaced in early January.

The school board’s acting president, Lauren Paige, said she is unsure when the board would introduce the policy Poynton was working on, but said it is something she would like to see implemented.

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