State PSC to decide on two complaints against Dallemand

The state’s Professional Standards Commission is scheduled to hear two complaints Thursday that have been filed against Bibb County Superintendent Romain Dallemand.

John Grant, chief investigator for the commission, would confirm only that the complaints against Dallemand were on the agenda for the commission’s Thursday meeting. Grant said he could not provide any more details, such as the nature of the complaints or who filed them.

The commission has three options in terms of what action it can take when a complaint is filed against an educator, Grant said: decide to proceed with an investigation; decide there isn’t sufficient probable cause to investigate; or refer the case back to the district board of education for which the educator works.

Grant said the PSC gets roughly 100 complaints a month and ends up investigating about half of them.

Attempts to reach Dallemand Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Grant said the PSC doesn’t usually inform educators against whom a complaint is filed until after the commission decides if it will pursue an investigation.

Community activist Darren Latch, a frequent Dallemand critic, said Tuesday that he filed a complaint with the PSC against Dallemand in May, contending that Dallemand had information on his résumé that isn’t accurate.

Latch said he and fellow activist Bill Knowles looked into a line on Dallemand’s résumé that he served as a “mental health therapist” for a private practice in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., from 1994 to 1998.

According to a Florida Department of Health official whom The Telegraph contacted, the state never issued a license to Dallemand, which the official said someone must have in order to be able to be listed as a mental health therapist.

Knowles posted on his website, wearepolitics.com, his efforts to find out about Dallemand’s mental health work in Florida, including filing a complaint against Dallemand with the Department of Health.

According to a letter Knowles posted, Florida won’t investigate, stating “that Dallemand’s behavior is ‘unacceptable,’ ” though not a “violation of the laws or rules that regulate the health care practitioner’s profession,” as the “allegation is beyond the statute of limitations.”

To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334.

This story was originally published June 12, 2012 at 11:27 PM with the headline "State PSC to decide on two complaints against Dallemand."