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Michael De Melo set about to create a false trail of who he was and his past employment when he applied for a position to teach music and direct the band at Medford Public Schools in 2024.
That decision ultimately led to his dismissal in June 2026 after Medford school administrators conducted an investigation into his past. Officials had received an anonymous email detailing his resignation from a Florida high school following allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student.
It’s a long and sordid story, where De Melo not only mislead Medford officials, but changed his name several times and purposefully omitted critical information about his past employment and licensure.
On Oct. 19, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Suzanne Galusi sent out a letter to the community setting the record straight following a Boston Globe story with the headline “He resigned amid allegations of sex with a student. Medford missed his past and hired him.” earlier the same morning.
“We deeply regret that Mr. De Melo engaged in such an elaborate effort to gain employment with our district under false pretenses. We recognize the effects a story like this can have in our school communities, and I apologize for the impact it may cause,” Galusi wrote in her letter. “We are thoroughly reviewing our districtwide hiring structures as part of our ongoing work creating and refining coherent systems of operations.”
Galusi stressed there were no allegations, complaints or concerns of “inappropriate behavior by this former employee with any Medford Public Schools student.”
De Melo could not be reached for comment.
What happened in Florida
In August 2024, Medford Public Schools sent out a press release announcing the hiring of a brand new music teacher who would also lead the Medford High School Mustang marching band named Michael Dampier.
Galusi’s letter confirms all information in De Melo’s application at the time — resume, driver’s license, Social Security card and other materials — were listed under Michael Dampier.
“His resumé listed extensive experience in teaching and band direction but omitted his tenure at the Florida high school from which he resigned after the allegations surfaced, while using the name Michael Johnson,” the letter states. “In fact, Mr. De Melo’s resumé falsely claimed that he was working in New Mexico during the final year of his employment with and resignation from the high school in Florida.”
According to the Globe article, De Melo — under the name Michael Johnson — was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student.
In June 2017, Florida news station News4 JAX reported Johnson resigned from Nease High School following an internal investigation by the St. Johns County School District that included his affair with a student.
But that wasn’t the initial complaint, the station reported. Johnson was suspended in March 2017 after “school district officials received tips about Johnson’s behavior toward band students.”
“Students and parents complained that Johnson bullied, berated and belittled band members, and put them through hazing during summer band camp,” News4 JAX reported on its website. “During the course of the investigation, Johnson was questioned about a sexual relationship he had with a former student who had graduated. That student was 18 when the sex happened, and Johnson said he didn’t feel bad about it, because the student was of age, according to the school district’s investigation notes.”
In May of 2017, Johnson resigned.
“It is our understanding that Mr. De Melo (Johnson, at the time of allegations) was never arrested nor charged with any crimes,” Galusi’s letter states.
The Globe investigation confirms that “In Florida, there is no public record of discipline taken against a teacher using the name Dampier, or his other two names.”
Michael Dampier emerges
Between 2017 and 2018, Johnson started teaching at a New Mexico high school. While there, his Florida past was revealed in a news story by a local television station and he was placed on leave.
By 2024, Johnson had changed his name to Michael Dampier and been hired by Medford Public Schools, where he was touted for his 15 years of experience teaching middle and high school before a car accident left him temporarily blind.
The MPS press release described a year of corrective surgeries and said Dampier worked in China and Brazil before coming to teach in Medford.
The full press release, along with Dampier’s photo, has since been removed from the Medford Public Schools website, although an announcement of his hiring remains in an Aug. 9 superintendent’s announcement by former Superintendent Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent.
Both the Dampier and De Melo names are also no longer on the school’s staff directory.
The Globe story states “few” of Dampier’s biographical details “hold up to scrutiny.” For example, the newspaper found there were no records for a student named Michael Dampier at the University of Florida, where he claimed to have graduated from. Although, reporters found, the school did have a student under the name Michael Johnson who graduated in 2002 with a bachelor degree in music education.
Galusi’s letter also makes reference to background checks into Dampier’s past.
“School and district officials involved in the hiring process also conducted reference checks about the applicant,” the letter states. “However, because Mr. De Melo did not disclose his previous employment at the high school in Florida, there was no reference check with that employer. Our screening process also routinely includes Internet searches about finalists, but again, we did not discover the Florida allegations because Mr. De Melo had applied under a new name (Dampier).”
She added that “during the screening process, Medford Public Schools officials adhered to all state and federal mandates regarding background check procedures. Every prospective employee undergoes a thorough vetting process, including State Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI), national fingerprint-based Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) checks, and the Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB) checks. In the case of Mr. De Melo (Dampier at time of hiring), none of these checks raised any red flags.”
Licensure question
Educators go through a strict licensure process in states where they teach. Galusi said at the time of his hiring, Dampier had teaching licenses in both Florida and New Mexico, but was not yet licensed in Massachusetts.
The Globe found Dampier taught at Medford his first year without a license, calling that “a violation of state law.”
However, Galusi said that is a “fairly common” practice.
“Medford Public Schools followed standard procedures in working with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to seek a waiver while he pursued licensure here,” Galusi states in her letter. “It is fairly common, particularly for educators who are licensed in other states but new to Massachusetts, for DESE to grant waivers (and for those waivers to be pending) while educators are completing the steps to become fully licensed.”
The Globe also asserted there are currently no licensed teachers in Massachusetts named Michael Dampier, according to a DESE database.
That’s because while teaching at Medford High School, Dampier began using a third name — Michael De Melo. It is De Melo who received a teaching license on Oct. 6, 2025.
In both the Globe story and in Galusi’s letter, it was stated DESE officials confirmed that in his licensure application in Massachusetts, Dampier — now going by De Melo — “attested under penalty of perjury that he had never resigned from a position while under investigation.”
The Globe says “the state defended its actions in issuing him a license and blamed local officials: “Districts are required to conduct thorough background checks and use careful hiring practices, such as ‘thorough reference checks on finalists,’” Jacqueline Reis, a state education department spokesperson, said in an email.”
Reis told the Globe there were no records of disciplinary action for De Melo in a national database, but those records are only available if the information is made public.
But what about all the public information on Michael Johnson? No formal charges or disciplinary actions were ever taken against him in Florida and there are no records pertaining to Johnson or his other two aliases, Michael Dampier or Michael De Melo.
The past catches up
In February 2026, Medford administrators received an anonymous email “alerting us to the allegations against Mr. De Melo from the Florida high school,” Galusi’s letter states.
“Upon receiving the email, we immediately placed the employee on leave,” the statement says. “As part of his leave, Mr. De Melo would not be permitted to return to work in Medford Public Schools or have any contact with students.
“We conducted an investigation, including an interview with the employee, in which he acknowledged that he had worked at the Florida high school for a decade (which was omitted from his resumé) before resigning in the wake of the allegations,” it continues.
“We informed Mr. De Melo that he would not be permitted to return to work in Medford Public Schools or have any contact with students for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year,” it concludes. “His last official day of employment with the school district was June 30, 2026.”
Galusi admitted in the statement that Medford did fail to notify “DESE about the circumstances surrounding Mr. De Melo’s non-renewal. I accept full responsibility for that oversight and will ensure moving forward that we make state officials aware of any and all personnel matters that could affect an educator’s licensure or fitness to work in public schools.”
The Globe story
In her statement to the Medford community, Galusi also directly addressed the Globe story.
“We now know, but did not know at the time he was hired, that Mr. De Melo (under the name Johnson) resigned from a previous position in a Florida high school after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student,” she stated. “Mr. De Melo went to great lengths, including providing false information in his resumé and in the licensure application process, to mislead school, district, and state officials about his employment history and to conceal the allegations of his misconduct.”
Galusi added the Globe story “omits some critical information that we need to clarify.”
“Under normal circumstances, we would not provide detail about the hiring or dismissal of any employee, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters,” the statement says. “However, in this case, we believe it is important to provide additional background to our families, staff, and Medford community. It is also important to note that we have been working diligently to compile all of the records requested by the Boston Globe related to this matter and were on schedule to deliver those records within the 10 days required by state law. The Globe published the story before the deadline to receive those records.”
The fallout
So far, the story has slowly spread throughout the Medford community, ending up on NBC Boston and social media.
The responses have been mixed. Some on Reddit question why Medford didn’t simply call De Melo’s other employers, such as the school in New Mexico.
“They would have found out about the name change, which then should result in more investigation,” said one Redditor. “And they could have googled the original name and done a background check on that name.”
Another said even calling a previous employer might have hit a human resources wall, where past employee information is confidential and companies aren’t allowed to spill the real reasons why someone is dismissed.
“Terrible and ridiculous gaff by Medford nonetheless,” the Redditor said.
Others discussed CORI issues and shared both the full Globe story without a paywall and Galusi’s letter.
On Instagram, the main question was “How did publicly reported allegations, previous employment records, multiple names AND licensing issues escape scrutiny?”
There were no answers or even suggestions from those on the account. And no answers are forthcoming at the moment.
In a released statement to Gotta Know Medford, Galusi reiterated the facts of the case and said the district is still investigating. She also said Medford is working on its hiring policies.
“We are continuing to examine the details of this case, particularly to strengthen our procedures for screening prospective employees. We are in ongoing work creating and refining coherent systems of operations, and we are also in the early stages of an external review to assist in these important efforts,” she said. “We are deeply committed to ensuring the safety of all students and adults, and we will work diligently to refine procedures so that only the most highly qualified candidates, who have been thoroughly vetted to verify their employment and personal backgrounds, are hired to serve the students and families of the Medford Public Schools.”
