It’s a common truism that crooked teacher unions are a problem only for public schools. Kenneth Morris may be a prime example of the need for revision. On August 29, Morris, treasurer of American Federation of Teachers Local 2240, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with five counts of bank fraud and three counts of embezzlement totaling more than $31,000 from the San Francisco-based union, which represents teachers, counselors and librarians employed by the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Catholic Diocese of San Jose. A grand jury had indicted Morris a week earlier. The charges follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
According to prosecutors, Morris, now 50, a resident of Alameda, Calif. and a former math teacher at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, during September 10, 2018-December 10, 2018 took five checks of between $1,000 and $4,000 each meant for deposit in the union bank account and deposited them in a personal account. Moreover, on three separate occasions he allegedly stole union property during November 13, 2017-January 12, 2018. The losses to the union from each type of offense, respectively, totaled $12,890 and $18,721. At his arraignment, Morris pleaded not guilty to all charges, and was released on bond.