Jill Harmacinski of The Eagle-Tribune reports that the city of Lawrence (Massachusetts) will be paying for free credit reports for more than 400 people subjected to questionable background checks by the School Department.
Officials are now trying to figure out how many of the more than 400 background checks were actually legitimate checks for School Department purposes.
Earlier this week, Megan Woolhouse of The Boston Globe reported that two former workers for the school department are under investigation for conducting unauthorized background checks that included local officials, professional athletes, Hollywood actors, and even Governor Deval Patrick. Mark Rivera, a special assistant to the school department superintendent, and Harry Maldonado, a private investigator working for the school department, allegedly used LexisNexis to conduct the searches during a 14-month period from 2007 into 2009. Rivera has already resigned.