HANOVER, MASS. (WHDH) - Parents in Hanover are on edge after school officials sent out a letter saying a convicted level-two sex offender was working on a construction project at a school in the town for several months.
The owner of Brait Builders, the site’s general contractor, told 7News that Anthony Douglas slipped through gate checks at Center Elementary School by wearing a “forged” or “stolen” sticker on his hard hat.
“It is unfortunate and concerning that, an employee of one of our Subcontractors, was able to avoid the procedures set in place to detect unapproved workers,” Robert Brait said. “Brait Builders has already begun implementing new safeguards to avoid this from happening in the future.”
Superintendent Matthew Ferron says Douglas worked as an electrician for a subcontractor on the project, from November to March. He’s now back in jail on an unrelated matter.
The schools says it does not legally have to perform background checks on construction workers.
In a statement, Ferron and building committee chairwoman Elizabeth Corbo said “at no time was this individual in close proximity to students.”
Ferron and Corbo added:
“The school was not legally obligated to CORI this individual. We endeavour to extend our CORI beyond that which is legally required, and that did not happen with this individual. We have addressed this with the General Contractor and are we confident this omission will not occur again.”
7’s Sharman Sacchetti tried reaching the subcontractor who Douglas worked for, but did not hear back.
Brait Builders says they are checking other sites and working on new safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.
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