Extremely suspicious. I’m not saying he actually hired a student to kill another, or even suggested it, but his credentials don’t make sense to me. He says,

“I’m unemployed and my name is smeared all over the world,” he said. “I took 15 exams to become a teacher, I have three masters’ degrees and now they’re worthless. You think to yourself, at least they can never take away your degree, but … you cannot use it if your name means nothing.”

Further, the article goes on to say that at his next job application,

He made it as far as the front door, where the chief human resources officer of Clayton County schools stopped him.

The tone of the conversation was hushed, yet stern. The man told Forde, “I checked you out” before the job fair, and discovered that Forde did not have the “clear renewable certificate” required to teach in Clayton County.

What does this mean for laymen?

1. Georgia requires no masters degrees for teaching. His mentioning this is a red herring.
2. He says he wrote ‘15 exams’ in order to become a teacher, which I cannot understand. In Georgia, a content test is necessary along with a short post-bachelor’s program in Education and be in good standing with that institution after graduating. If he needed to take the competency test 15 times, I worry about his competency. He could be counting all the examinations in his post-bachelor’s education program, but that wouldn’t seem to make sense in terms of his quote.
3. If he is not in good standing with the school district, then he is not in good standing and therefore should not be hired. There are internal systems for petitioning school boards as well as union legal representation available to him. He has already been in touch with the department of Labor in order to restore his unemployment benefits and they have also agreed that the school board did not meet the burden of proof for misconduct termination.
4. Other people were turned away at that same interview for similar reasons (unqualified for the position).