Our View: Sad but true - background screening even of school volunteers a modern-day necessity
We don't like it. Ours used to be a community and a county where we didn't have to view most people as a potential threat to the safety of our children.
But the prevalence of sex crimes in the past few years, and the explosion in population in Montgomery County, has forced our schools and even our community organizations to take a much closer look at those who want to work with our children.
That's the motivation behind Montgomery Independent School District's exploration of a policy requiring school volunteers to undergo a background check before being permitted to work at MISD facilities.
MISD is on the right track, and in fact, every school district in the county - the state for that matter - should consider doing the same. Better yet, it should be state law.
The possible change comes from the MISD District Advisory Committee, a panel consisting of parents, teachers and community leaders that recommended implementing background checks for volunteers earlier this year.
"We want to make certain that any volunteer that has direct access to children has undergone a screening process," Babette Eikenberg, MISD's executive director for human resources, told The Courier for a story Wednesday.
The fact is that the state requires only a limited background check policy. State law says that the State Board for Educator Certification must obtain all criminal history record information on applicants for or holders of teaching certificates. SBEC conducts background checks on all applicants for certification, whether it's a new certificate, a duplicate certificate, additional certification or an emergency permit. But even that policy is imperfect. It wasn't until 2003 that SBEC was required to perform national background checks on teachers - and that's only for new teachers. Texas law does not require school districts to run background checks on other employees, except for bus drivers, or on volunteers.
Frankly, we'd like to see state law changed to require background checks on other school district employees and volunteers.
Until then, it's up to local school districts to take the lead in protecting our children.
Yes, it can involve an extra expense to pay for a thorough and useful background check. It most likely will cost school districts more to do so, depending on the services they use.
But MISD should move ahead with the recommendation - and other school districts should do the same.
Story taken from the following website: http://www.whig.com/283785436430254.php
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