Former Baltimore school principal sentenced to prison for false citizenship claim

A former Baltimore City schools teacher and principal who later ran Des Moines Public Schools was sentenced to two years in federal prison after prosecutors said he falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on school employment paperwork. Federal Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger imposed the sentence after Ian Andre Roberts pleaded guilty Jan. 21, 2026, to making a false statement for employment and being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.

Prosecutors had asked for 37 months. Roberts’s defense argued for probation. The sentence capped a case that began after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Roberts on Sept. 26, 2025, and federal authorities said he was carrying a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed-blade hunting knife at the time.

For Baltimore, the case reaches beyond one defendant’s criminal record and into the question of how a man with a long résumé in public education moved through multiple school systems. Roberts worked for Baltimore City Public Schools from 2001 to 2010, spending nearly eight years as a teacher, resident principal and principal. He was also the founding principal of Friendship Academy of Science and Technology in Southeast Baltimore, a role that put him in charge of one of the city’s newer school communities.

After leaving Baltimore, Roberts worked in Pennsylvania’s Millcreek Township School District from August 2020 to June 2023. He then became superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in July 2023, Iowa’s largest school district, before his arrest ended his tenure less than two years later. Prosecutors said he falsely stated that he was a U.S. citizen on Des Moines employment paperwork in June 2023.

The fallout has intensified scrutiny of school hiring and oversight. Roberts entered the United States from Guyana, and reporting said his employment authorization expired in 2020. Iowa education officials revoked his administrative certificate after the arrest, and attorneys said he is likely to be deported to Guyana after serving his sentence. The case also drew attention because Roberts had previously registered to vote in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Baltimore educators reacted with shock after his arrest, describing Roberts as a respected mentor and leader in city schools. His rise from Baltimore classrooms to a superintendent’s office in Iowa, and the false citizenship claim that brought it all down, now stands as a hard test of how well school systems verify the people they hire, promote and keep in leadership.