Richland School District 1 failed to prevent a vendor accused of sexually assaulting a child from working closely with vulnerable students at a Columbia high school for parts of the past two school years, an investigation by The State Media Co. has found.
Kerston Sallings, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to assaulting a 16-year-old patient at a Lexington County urgent care center, spent months working as a sign language interpreter at A.C. Flora High School, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the district.
In that role, Sallings, 38, followed deaf and hard of hearing students from class to class, interpreting spoken language for them throughout the school day and forging relationships with them and their families. He and his company are even featured in the school’s yearbook, where Sallings is pictured and identified by name.
Despite being alerted to Sallings’ presence at A.C. Flora shortly after he started there in March 2023, district officials didn’t immediately cut ties with the interpreter or his company, The State’s investigation found.
While the newspaper is not aware of any new assault allegations stemming from Sallings’ work in the district, its investigation unearthed a pattern of misrepresentation and deception that has frequently afforded him access to children.
A Richland 1 spokeswoman confirmed the district had contracted with Sallings’ company, Authentic ASL Interpreting, from March 2023 to May 2023, and from August 2023 to May 2024, but otherwise declined to answer questions about him and the district’s handling of his employment.
“When we are made aware of issues or concerns regarding a specific vendor, the matter is addressed and appropriate steps are taken, which may include a termination of services,” Richland 1 spokeswoman Karen York said in a statement.
York declined to say whether the district had been made aware of concerns about Sallings and what steps, if any, it had taken to address them. She provided no evidence that Richland 1 conducted an investigation in the aftermath of his hiring or notified A.C. Flora parents and staff that Sallings had worked at the school.
A state Department of Education spokesman declined comment on Sallings’ case, but said the agency expects districts that find themselves in a situation like Richland 1 to immediately terminate the person in question and review the matter to determine how they were hired.
Richland 1 is one of at least three local districts that has paid Authentic ASL for sign language interpreting services since 2023, but the only one where Sallings is known to have regularly entered a school and interacted with students.
Lexington 1 briefly employed Authentic ASL last year, but immediately terminated its contract with the company after learning Sallings had substituted for another interpreter without the district’s permission, spokeswoman Libby Roof said.
A spokeswoman for Sumter schools, which began using Authentic ASL in July 2023 at the recommendation of neighboring districts, said it hadn’t had any issues with the company. She said Sallings had not worked at any Sumter schools and that officials weren’t aware of any unauthorized Authentic ASL employees entering or attempting to enter its schools.
Lexington-Richland School District 5 contracted with Authentic ASL last August, but never used the company because it wasn’t available when the district called for services, a spokeswoman said.
Sallings’ criminal history
Concerns about Sallings working with children stem from a 2014 incident in which he assaulted a 16-year-old patient in the bathroom of a West Columbia medical facility.
At the time, Sallings — who then went by the name Kerston Turner — was employed at the facility as a nurse aide, but passed himself off as a nurse, which allowed him to gain access to the child, according to police reports.
The teen’s mother told police that Sallings asked her to leave the examination room so he could have a frank conversation with her son, who was being evaluated for anxiety and depression.
After she left the room, Sallings offered to secretly administer an STD test as a ploy to engage the patient in sexual performance, police said. The teen said Sallings escorted him to another part of the building that was “away from everybody else,” turned off the lights and asked him to ejaculate into a cup while he stood watch, according to a police report.
When the teen balked, Sallings took him to a restroom and assaulted him, claiming it was necessary to ensure an accurate result for the STD test, according to the victim’s statement.
A few days later, Sallings was arrested and charged with unlicensed practice as a registered nurse, first-degree assault and battery, and engaging a child under the age of 18 for sexual performance.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department publicized his arrest and multiple media outlets reported on the charges. His mugshot was displayed across television screens, newspapers and the internet.
Despite the publicity, Sallings found work at another medical provider while out on bond, according to a 2014 television news report.
The new clinic fired him after learning of his pending criminal charges, which the report said he’d failed to disclose during the interview process.
In response, the judge overseeing Sallings’ sex-related assault case modified the terms of his bond, citing “allegations that Defendant has worked in an urgent care facility” since the original bond was set. Sallings’ modified bond prohibited him from working in the medical field, misrepresenting his medical credentials and spending time in areas where children congregate, court documents show.
A subsequent job managing a Wild Wing Cafe in Columbia also ended in scandal after Sallings was accused of stealing $10,000 from the restaurant. He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor forgery and avoided prison time, court records show.
The sex-related assault case against Sallings, which dragged on for more than four years, also ended in a plea deal.
Records show he pleaded guilty to unlicensed practice as a registered nurse and second-degree assault and battery, both misdemeanors, and served no prison time. Sallings was not required to register as a sex offender nor prohibited from working in health care or with children.
Lexington County Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes declined comment on the prosecution of Sallings’ case.
Authentic ASL Interpreting
Several years after his assault conviction, in October 2022, Sallings and his husband, who is deaf, launched their own sign language interpreting business and quickly secured contracts with the Lexington 1, Richland 1 and Sumter school districts.
All three of the districts relied on the company, Authentic ASL Interpreting, to submit background checks for their employees. Sallings, who ran the company and also served as an interpreter, did not provide his own background check to districts.
In an interview with The State, he said he withheld his own background check because, as a manager, he never entered schools.
Multiple people with knowledge of Sallings’ work at local schools disputed that assertion.
He was spotted inside Richland 1’s A.C. Flora High School and Lexington 1’s Red Bank Elementary shortly after starting in early 2023, and was reported to administrators in both districts.
Lexington 1 took swift action after learning Sallings had filled in for another interpreter at the elementary school, said Roof, the district’s spokeswoman.
She said officials reviewed surveillance footage of his movements inside the school and consulted with a teacher who had shared a classroom with him. While the review turned up nothing out of the ordinary, the district terminated Authentic ASL’s contract, citing the company’s failure to submit proof that all staff sent into schools had passed a criminal background check.
Richland 1 refused to discuss how officials responded to reports that Sallings was working at A.C. Flora.
The interpreter said Richland 1 officials confronted him about his criminal background in the days after he began working for the district, but denied ever physically setting foot inside A.C. Flora.
“They let me know they had become aware (of my criminal background) and I was not to be on any school property, and I said that was fine,” Sallings said. “I accept that in all the districts I work in.”
Whatever their concerns about Sallings may have been, Richland 1 did not stop doing business with his company. And by the fall, he was back at A.C. Flora on a regular basis, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation.
Richland 1 board member Robert Lominack, who tipped off Superintendent Craig Witherspoon about Sallings in March 2023, reached out again that November to relay that he’d received reports the interpreter had returned.
Lominack said the full school board was briefed on the situation at its next meeting and he was assured the issue had been addressed.
At some point afterward, Sallings stopped coming into A.C. Flora, sources said.
Other interpreters from his company continued working at the school through the end of the semester, after which Sallings said the district informed him the company’s services would no longer be needed there. No reason was given, he said.
While Sallings isn’t believed to have worked in the district since last fall, one of his employees, a deaf facilitator, continued working at a Richland 1 middle school through May, a district spokeswoman said.
State background checks, regulations questioned
The ease with which Sallings’ company secured contracts with local school districts raises questions about vetting processes for school vendors and highlights the state’s lack of any official standards for sign language interpreters who work in K-12 schools.
Local districts are required by law to run background checks on any individual — employee or contractor — who works in their schools prior to employment, according to a memo the S.C. Department of Education sent district administrators last year.
Districts may conduct the checks themselves or, as occurred in all three districts that used Authentic ASL Interpreting, ask vendors to submit proof that their employees have passed criminal background screenings.
Patrick Kelly, a Blythewood High School teacher who serves as director of government affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association, said relying on vendors to attest honestly in these situations is not a risk worth taking.
“We need a higher level of diligence and accountability when we’re talking about the backgrounds of individuals who are being employed to work with children in South Carolina schools,” said Kelly, who called The State’s findings “highly concerning.”
While the South Carolina legislature in 2022 passed a law establishing new requirements for sign language interpreters, it notably excluded requirements for interpreters working in K-12 settings.
The State Board of Education was charged with developing and implementing regulations for educational interpreters, but to date has not done so.
South Carolina Department of Education spokesman Jason Raven said the agency’s office of special education services is currently working with stakeholders across the state to create a draft regulation for educational interpreters that it hopes to bring before the state board and, eventually, the General Assembly for approval.
Had regulations for K-12 interpreters been in place last year when multiple districts contracted with Authentic ASL, Sallings likely would have been flagged.
In addition to his criminal history, he’s also run afoul of professional industry standards. The national certifying body for sign language interpreters permanently revoked his membership last year due to a series of ethical violations.
A spokesman for the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf would not disclose why the organization banned Sallings and forbade him from even sitting for certification exams, but said the reprimand was not related to his criminal history.
According to a list of ethics violators on the registry’s website, Sallings broke five of the group’s seven tenets of professional conduct – professionalism, conduct, respect for consumers, respect for colleagues and business practices. The penalty he received is the harshest the organization has ever levied against an interpreter.
Sallings declined to discuss the registry’s sanction, and said he was working to reverse it.
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