June 22, 2017 03:47 PM UTC

Don't Go Away Mad, Eric Nelson, Just Go Away

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The Aurora Sentinel’s Ramsey Scott updates us on the…well, not exactly sad, more like pathetic story of Aurora Public Schools board member Eric Nelson–who was exposed last year as a serial fabricator of virtually all the details of his background, from fake degrees to appearing in a fake U.S. Air Force major’s uniform:

Publicly discredited APS board member Eric Nelson is pondering another run for school board and said this week he never lied about or embellished his resume — an issue that resulted in his censure by his fellow board members last year and calls for his resignation among school and Democratic Party officials.

A 2016 investigation commissioned by Aurora Public Schools and Superintendent Rico Munn last year revealed Nelson’s resume was full of inaccurate claims. The report found Nelson fabricated all four educational degrees he claimed on his biography. He represented himself as a decorated officer in the Air Force, but the inquiry revealed he was only an enlistee for several weeks. The APS investigation and stories by The Aurora Sentinel and other Denver media also revealed that Nelson misrepresented his involvement with various businesses and organizations.

One year after the scandal, Nelson remains on the board, attends community events as a school board member and is pondering running for re-election. He has since changed his resume credentials, still maintaining a hefty list of academic honors.

According to the Sentinel, Nelson’s updated academic history consists of “degrees” from non-accredited theological colleges–including one that gives out “Life Experience Degrees” to anyone who can pony up $100. That’s a small step up from the crude Photoshopped fakeries Nelson tried to pass off on reporters and his colleagues on the Aurora school board last year, but needless to say it’s hard to call Nelson any kind of educational role model. Nelson’s fake history came to light last year after he filed to run as a Democrat in House District 42. Following those revelations Nelson lost that primary, but can’t be removed from the APS board without a vote–and nobody has seen fit to invest the money in a recall campaign.

The fact that Nelson remains on the Aurora school board after being found to be such a complete fraud brings discredit on that institution. But as we all learned in Jefferson County in 2015, even school board recalls are an incredibly expensive and fraught process. In this case, the judgment seems to have been that Nelson simply wasn’t worth the effort.

If Nelson does run for re-election, and we think he may just be bullheaded enough to try, hopefully the community will end this embarrassment once and for all.