Chess scam hits Deleware schools
Teacher a no-show for $63.50 classes
By JENNIFER PRICE
• The News Journal
• April 9, 2008
More than 57 Delaware families were scammed by a man who promised to teach their children chess after school then didn’t show up for most lessons, school officials say.
None of the three schools required background checks for Christopher Hackford, 21, before allowing him to send home fliers with students for his “Chess for Children” program. Hackford — who has larceny charges pending against him related to October 2007 thefts at several Lowe’s stores in Massachusetts — was arrested in February in Massachusetts on charges that he ran chess scams there.
Hackford offered the program for kindergarten through fifth-grade students in January and February at Christina School District’s Brader Elementary and Appoquinimink’s Brick Mill and Loss elementary schools, district officials said. He charged $63.50 for a six-session program, bringing in more than $3,600. He only showed up for the first lesson in all three schools.
The fliers directed parents to register on the program’s Web site, chessforchildren.net, where they then were required to pay through a Google payment system, Christina spokeswoman Wendy Lapham said. The schools weren’t involved in the registration, district officials said.
“I thought it was a great opportunity,” said Tony Rhudd, a Brader parent who registered two of his children. “It’s extra practice for reason and strategizing, but it makes it fun so they don’t get bored.”
Twenty-three Brader students and 34 Loss students signed up. School officials couldn’t provide how many Brick Mill students registered.
Hackford, who has a valid Nevada driver’s license, approached the schools about sending fliers home with their students and about using a classroom for his chess program. School officials, who said they did not endorse the program, required him to fill out a facility use form to use a classroom — at no cost. They did not require him to get a background check.
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The system is bad. Even a convicted felon like Sam Sloan can teach NY City children.
The guy in the picture looks like a Sloan. Ewww.
Many of the public school districts in New York State require persons coming into their schools have their finger prints on record with the NYS Board of Education. Many of the private schools want background checks. I think it’s very important for the safety of children to perform due diligance on persons providing any sort of activity or service to kids. In this case it’s fortunate that it was only money that was lost.