Collegiate Times

A day after a Collegiate Times article listing area sex offenders was published, an employee of Virginia Tech's Parking Services who was on the list was fired.

Paul Dean Martin had been a seasonal worker with Tech's Parking Services for seven years before he received a letter of termination dated Oct. 11. The CT Article "Sex Offenders Work on Campus" was published Oct. 10.

"I don't understand why it was written," Martin said. "My name is on the sex offender registry, and for the paper to put my name out there, that hurt. I lost a job because of it."

Richard McCoy, manager of parking services, declined to discuss the reasoning behind Martin's termination, citing the confidentiality of personnel issues.

Martin's notice of termination came in a one-line letter dated Oct. 11: "Effective today, we will no longer need your services for football parking. Thank you." The letter was addressed to Martin and signed by McCoy.

Martin said that he felt the situation was handled very poorly.

"There should have been a reason. It's nothing that I've personally done that would cause me to be fired. I've had no complaints," he said.

Martin said he called McCoy, the manager of Parking Services, to ask why he had been fired.

"I said I got a letter in the mail and would like to learn what's going on. He said it was budget cuts," Martin said.

McCoy disputed that recollection.

"I don't think that's correct," McCoy said. "I think he was told what was in the letter."

McCoy acknowledged that no reason for termination was offered in the letter and said that, while that isn't necessarily standard practice, employee dismissals are handled on a case-by-case basis.

"It depends on what the reasons are and what type of issue it is. We don't have our own human resources rules," McCoy said. "Whatever the human resources rules are for Tech, we follow them."

McCoy said that Tech's Parking Services follow all of the rules of Tech's Human Resources including hiring and firing policies. According to Human Resources guidelines, throughout the university there are many positions that require background checks.

"The reason why you do a background check is so that you can evaluate the events of a person's life to see if they can do the job and if they'll be good for the university community," said Larry Hincker, university relations spokesman.

McCoy refused to comment on Martin's hiring process because of personnel confidentiality.

Martin said he notified parking services about his convictions when he applied for the position seven years ago. He also said that when his registry was updated and his place of employment was listed as Tech's Parking Services, he let his supervisors know.

According to the Virginia State Police Sex Offender Individual Record, Martin had seven convictions, all in 1996, including five taking indecent liberties with children charges, one aggravated sexual battery charge, and one crime against nature charge.

"I have always been up front and honest with anybody who wants to ask me what has gone on in my life," Martin said.

After Martin received the letter, he asked his co-workers to see if anyone else had been fired or if anyone had heard about why he had been let go.

"I have people (whom I worked with) who've tried to get answers from other people, and they won't talk about it," Martin said. "It tells me that there's something not right."

Martin said that he thought there should be a precedent in which sex offenders cannot be continuously discriminated against.

"I've done my time and have been very responsible, and I need a chance to prove myself and that's all I'm asking," Martin said.