Background checks required, Iowa City school official says

Iowa City school district officials found no red flags when hiring a former elementary school counselor who was recently arrested on charges of sexually abusing a fifth-grade student six years ago, the Iowa City Press Citizen reports.

Police charged Donald Lyle Clark, 41, of Coralville, with second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony, after an investigation that began in June. Investigators determined that Clark, a former guidance counselor, abused the Lemme Elementary School fifth grader in Iowa City during the 2003-04 school year.

Associate Superintendent Jim Behle told the newspaper all school employees undergo extensive background checks before being hired and that those procedures were in place when Clark was hired in 2001 from the Benton Community School District.

“If there were any red flags, a person wouldn't be hired,” Behle said. “We use the most thorough practices available to the school district” for background checks.

Clark surrendered to Iowa City police on Monday, and he remains in the Johnson County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond.

Clark served as a guidance counselor at Lemme in 2001 and as a part-time counselor at Wood Elementary from 2002 until he resigned in April 2008.