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School Workers Need
Background Checks
by Liz Thompson
It's a no-brainer. Teachers and all school personnel need a background check and fingerprinting to clear before hiring. Yes, it's extra work, but our children are worth it.
I worked in the Phoenix, Arizona, schools as a teacher's assistant from 2003-2005. I had to be fingerprinted and have a background check and it had to clear to be hired. I carried a fingerprint card at all times.
The process was repeated if I changed jobs to another school district. I had three different jobs in three different schools in a two-year time frame and I was fingerprinted two times. My guess is staff was re-fingerprinted often.
All staff – custodians, bus drivers, secretaries, administration, cafeteria workers, nurses, teacher assistants and teachers – were required to have this background check.
We had firm policies on how to behave around any children in the school. I worked with special needs children whose behavior was unpredictable. Some were champion huggers, but we were only allowed to hug sideways with our arm and hand across the shoulder. It made perfect sense to me.
In this atmosphere, it would be easy to spot those who had harmful tendencies toward the children.
The problem is not new. In a 1999 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article by Jane Elizabeth Zemel, she writes that Arizona has one of the strictest policies: "Any teacher who even suspects 'immoral behavior' on the part of another educator must report it to an administrator, noted Craig Emanuel, an investigator with the Arizona Department of Education. If teachers don't report the suspicion, they can be charged with a Class I misdemeanor and could lose their own teaching certificate."
I realize this is not an infallible system, but we must start cleaning house somewhere or all the dirty little secrets will get swept under the rug. We're talking about children here. Children who are told to trust adults, especially those who are in authoritative positions like teachers.
When I read the recent series of articles about teachers in our school systems, I found myself yelling at the newspaper. That was not doing any good, so I did some research.
I hit pay dirt on the Ohio Department of Education Web site, ode.state.oh.us. I learned that effective March 29, 2007, to comply with Amended House Bill 79, ODE "requires applicants for any license or permit that it issues to complete an Ohio criminal background check, conducted by the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. The BCI&I fingerprint results must be submitted to ODE electronically through WebCheck, webcheck.ag.state.oh.us."
I learned even more good news when I read that applicants who have not lived in Ohio continuously for the past five years also must complete a federal criminal background check through the FBI. The results of each of these background checks are valid for one year.
"If an application is received on or after March 29 without the appropriate background check results on file, ODE will place the application on hold pending receipt of the results," according to the ODE Web site.
We spend millions on fancy schools and we continue to have a myriad of problems lurking in dark corners.
When our youngest was in fifth grade more than 20 years ago, she began dreading school each day. This was completely against her personality. We always went to open houses to meet the teachers, but we had our eye on one in particular: The one who had called her "stupid" in the advanced math class. We knew this was true; we know our own children, right?
We sat in the class watching this man and I was not impressed with his devil-may-care attitude. He did not command respect. Then an apparent former student strolled in the room with her arms open wide and ran up and hugged this teacher. The whole scene sent up red flags all over my brain.
I waited for an opportunity to talk with him. When I did, I told him who I was and asked how our daughter was doing in his class. I don't recall his answer. but I blurted out, "Why did you say she was stupid in front of the entire class? Why did you call her stupid at all?"
All I remember is he did not deny this, but came up with a trumped-up answer. I basically warned him to never do that again or she was out of the class and I would notify authorities.
Parents and guardians need to be on the lookout for potential problems. We need to begin believing our children and treat them with the respect we want in return.
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