NICKLAUS BARTELLI
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The Art of the Con: On the Trail of Amy Robertson
April 13th, 2017
Nicklaus Bartelli
A week after the Amy Robertson saga ended in Pittsburg, Kansas, a community, school board, and local media were left with more questions than answers as to who Robertson really is.
Robertson seemed to blow in out of the Arabian Desert and appeared to be a perfect fit for the job of principal at Pittsburg High School. After a stormy week that saw her exposed as a fraud by an intrepid group of high school reporters, Robertson vanished like a mirage.
In her wake, she left confusion, embarrassment and blame for district officials and a white-hot national media spotlight for the students who exposed her.
Though Robertson never stepped foot in Pittsburg, she has left an indelible mark on the community. The USD 250 school board and superintendent Destry Brown have taken a virtual beating on social media and in the realm of public opinion, but it appears they are just the latest victims of Robertson’s deception.
Background
On March 6th the Pittsburg USD 250 School Board hired Dr. Amy Robertson to fill the position of principal at Pittsburg High School.
Robertson, a former teacher and administrator at Dubai American Scientific School in the United Arab Emirates and CEO of an educational consulting firm, was offered the job after interviewing with a group of 24 students, faculty, and administrators.
However, students at the Booster, Pittsburg High’s student newspaper, began to question the validity of Robertson’s resume after a Google search of her name turned up unflattering stories of her time in Dubai.
Robertson reportedly spent the last 17 years in and out of Dubai as an educator and CEO of Atticus I S Consultants LLC.
The students’ research revealed that Corllins University – Robertson’s alma mater - has been under fire for being a diploma mill, or a business that offers fraudulent degrees in exchange for money. All attempts to contact Corllins University were unsuccessful.
The phone number listed for the university did not connect and officials from the school did not return emails.
Corllins is not an accredited university and is not listed with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation: the primary accreditation agency for thousands of colleges and universities – including PSU. Robertson claimed to have a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Tulsa.
However, Mona Chamberlin, Director of Marketing and Communication for the University of Tulsa, told the Collegio that, although Roberts did attend the university, she never graduated with a degree.
In a special April 3rd meeting, the school board released a two-sentence statement announcing Robertson’s resignation.
“In light of the issues that arose, Dr. Robertson felt it was in the best interest of the district to resign her position,” the statement read.
On April 7, the board issued a statement declaring that the district will examine its hiring process.
“The board relies upon the recommendations from district administrators when approving hires,” the statement read. “However, the final responsibility for every hire rests with the board. It’s clear now, in this instance, our process failed. We are actively reviewing our procedures, including oversight by district administrators, to determine the changes needed to ensure this does not happen again.”
On April 10, after a marathon executive session, superintendent Destry Brown announced the board plans to hire a third-party search firm to find a new high school principal.
The Tulsa years
According to Robertson’s former associates at the University of Tulsa, her deceptive behaviors started long ago.
Paula Scheider attended TU with Robertson. She remembers a woman that was not trustworthy, and full of duplicity.
“I wasn’t surprised when I saw her name,” Scheider said.
“It made me uncomfortable because she threw around a lot of money, and she brought a lot of alcohol to all the cast parties, and wanted everyone else to drink but wouldn’t drink herself,” Scheider said.
Scheider was a nontraditional student in the early 1990’s, and said that being a bit older and a single mother, she was more wary of who Robertson claimed to be. Scheider even stopped Robertson from picking up her son from daycare because she knew things didn’t add up.
“Later it turned out she didn’t really have all that money, those were credit cards she had used other people’s names and social security numbers to get,” she said.
After reading news stories about Robertson’s attempt to con the Pittsburg school district, Scheider posted her opinion of Robertson on Facebook.
“One of the most evil, dangerous women I have ever known has been nationally humiliated by a team of high school journalists. I just truly hope the next time she's in the news, it's with the phrase ‘has been charged with...’ following her name.”
Court records show 4 counts against Amy Lynne Robertson between 1990 and 1992 for forcible eviction and obtaining money or property by means of false and bogus check. Scheider also told the Collegio that she knew Robertson “went and had her middle name changed multiple times.” Court documents also show two more bogus check counts against an Amy Renee Robertson in 1991 and 1993. Though the names were different, the modus operandi was the same for all cases. In each case, she was arrested, posted bail, but never appeared for court. All three cases were later dropped after the statute of limitations expired.
“Cindy,” another victim of Robertson’s from her time at TU who wished to remain anonymous, said Robertson pawned items out of her parent’s home, and probably used the money to buy she and her mother expensive dinners.
“She stole my social security number, which were our (student) ID numbers at the time. Then I got several calls from phone companies I never used (that wanted me to) pay bills that weren’t mine,” Cindy said.
Robertson has not been verified as having been a full-time student at the university, and Cindy said she only took a few credits for voice and theatre, but wasn’t a good student.
“The rest of us were working and studying and never saw her crack a book,” she said.
Based on her experience with Robertson decades ago, Cindy said she was surprised to see her resurface.
“She really convinced herself of her own lies that it was almost, I don’t want to say sociopathic, but it was mental illness,” Cindy said. “For 25 years, or most of her life, she had to live a life that’s a lie” she said. “I really thought she’d be incarcerated by now or… dead.”
Robertson has since distanced herself from her former classmates.
After leaving Tulsa, the Collegio found record of Robertson in New York beginning in 1993. There is little detail of her time in the Empire State, but it wasn’t long until she was on the move again, she eventually surfaced in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Old habits die hard
In Dubai, Robertson was hired by iCademy, an education company that needed a Head of School for Dubai Women’s College in September of 2015. Within two weeks, Robertson stole the equivalent of 2,500 U.S. dollars earmarked for another employee, when asked to return it, she offered only excuses and was fired.
Cody Claver, the education general manager at iCademy said “Our company was duped… It was the most bizarre incident I have experienced in my 30 years as an educator,” Claver said. iCademy contacted the local authorities in Dubai about the incident and notified them of Robertson’s escapade in Pittsburg.
Superintendent Destry Brown said the district contacted some of Robertson’s references in Dubai, and all of Robertson’s references in the United States, but none came from the Midwest, due to the fact that recent references are required on the application.”
Brown admitted that Robertson has damaged the district’s reputation, and that will take time to repair.
“I feel like the district has really taken a black eye and she’s the one who did the lying and did everything wrong… I’m embarrassed because I feel like I’ve been duped, but I’m finding that I’m not alone and other people have been duped too.”
Mac & Jake
Brown is a consultant for the leading national search firm for superintendents and administrators, McPherson & Jacobson, L.L.C. The firm conducts national searches for school boards. Since 1991, the firm has placed over 700 superintendents and other officials in public and non-profit organizations across the United States.
Robertson was listed as a candidate for superintendent in three districts in Arkansas in the past year: Pine Bluff, Guy-Perkins, and Harrison, all of which hired McPherson & Jacobson to conduct a search for their open superintendent positions.
Despite the assertion in the company’s literature that they check all candidates references and credentials, Dr. Thomas Jacobson, CEO of McPherson & Jacobson says his company relies on states to conduct the vetting process of candidates and that they are reputable.
“We believe there is integrity in that process and we believe the states do a good job. We take it at face value that if the state has granted the license then they have met the requirements,” Jacobson said.
In 2014, McPherson & Jacobson was the search firm for New London, Connecticut schools that hired Terrence P. Carter, who was later found to hold a degree from Lexington University, a diploma mill.
The Hartford Courant said in 2014 during the process that “Members of the superintendent search committee are blaming New London's recruiting consultant, Nebraska-based McPherson & Jacobsen, which had promised to perform ‘extensive background checks’ on candidates.”
Epidemic of resume fraud
The U.S. government estimates that top selling diploma mills are taking in a combined $50 million of annual revenue each year, and the Academy of Legal Studies in Business estimates that 46 percent of job applicants put incorrect information on resumes.
According to a 2012 article in the ALSB Journal of Employment and Labor Law, “Job candidates frequently misrepresent their credentials through resume fraud. Resume fraud encompasses providing: phony employment history; bogus credentials, including degrees, licenses and certificates; and exaggerating job responsibilities and achievements. Falsifying… educational credentials has been reported as the most common type of resume fraud.”
Though instances of resume fraud seem to increasing, there is no federal law to combat the practice. Some states have taken matters into their own hands.
15 states have passed laws that penalize resume fraud. They include: Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Virginia and Wyoming.
Brown says he became aware of Robertson during a search for another school district for which she applied, but said that he doesn’t use his resources at McPherson and Jacobson for his own purposes.
“As far as Mac & Jacobson, If I do a search somewhere, I’m not going to use the same people out of those pools, because I feel like that’s a conflict of interest, and I just don’t do that.”
Jacobson said that other consultants can and do use the company resources. He said that Robertson contacted the firm after her resignation in Pittsburg.
“She asked us to remove all of her information and to not share it with anybody,” Jacobson said.
Brown said he hopes by using a third-party firm to find a new principal, the district can ease uncertainty in the community.
“I think it will help take the pressure off and I hope it will restore confidence that we are all trying to do right and the board is trying to do the right thing. I want nothing more than to have a great dynamic leader at Pittsburg High School,” Brown said.
There is a special school board meeting tonight to determine which firm will be used by the district.