A former instructor at a California Guitar Center posted an emotional video to Facebook on July 31st, after a fellow former instructor was arrested for lewd behavior with a minor. Marie Strassenburg recorded the video within minutes of walking off her job as a piano instructor at the music store in Riverside, California, claiming management wanted to keep the matter quiet.
Nathaniel Hernandez, 27, had been arrested the previous week and charged with lewd acts with a child. Hernandez had been a guitar instructor at Guitar Center before being fired for not showing up for work.
"Why is it that he was hired to work with children if he had 2 previous felonies?" Strassenburg asks in the video, which has had over 9 million views.
She claims that Guitar Center did not care to perform a thorough background check on Hernandez, who had previously been convicted of burglary in 2008.
In a statement Monday, a spokesman for Guitar Center wrote: "While there have been news reports that the former employee in question was allegedly convicted of a burglary nine years ago, that alleged conviction was not flagged in the background check because California law limits background checks to seven years."
The statement continued: "Our professional outside firm also ran searches before the employee was hired that confirmed he was not listed on the national sex offender registry."
Guitar Center said they are deeply saddened by the situation in Riverside, and are fully cooperating with police.
Strassenburg urges parents to speak up about their rights when it comes to sitting in with any instructor who is giving music lessons to their children.
"If there is anybody, any adult that says you are not allowed to be there when they're alone with your child, take your business elsewhere," Strassenburg said.
