The Amy Bishop Background Checks

An article in Elizabeth College’s Etownian, entitled Academic Background Checks Inept? calls for better background checks for academics.   The article, by Patricia A. Cangelosi,  notes how the University of Alabama may have overlooked Amy Bishop’s past where she reportedly shot and killed her brother by accident while trying to clean his shotgun.   According to the article in the Etownian, in 1993 while at Harvard, Bishop suspected she would receive bad reviews and in response she allegedly mailed pipe bombs to the professor’s house.

I blogged about Bishop’s exploits in an article on the blog site Hopeful Romantics.org, called The Vintage Whine of Academia.  I commented on how different professors were claiming the requirements for tenure were too harsh and while Bishop’s case is in the extreme, candidates for tenure may succumb to the stress and pressure.   I thought this claim over the top as most people in the private sector are under pressure at their jobs as well.  It comes with the territory and should be apparent that someone awarded a professorship or position for life should be under scrutiny for protracted period.  Let’s face it, other than a judgeship, and as the dictator of a third world country, there are not many places where you are awarded your position for life.

Cangelosi writes in her article that at Elizabethtown College a teaching applicant could still be accepted, even if they have on their background checks convictions on criminal records going back ten years or.  Fair enough, if it’s a harmless misdemeanor or even a non-violent crime of sorts.  But when violence is involved and when there are students present, violent criminal records can give an employer pause.  Cangelosi cites other incidents with other teachers who were arrested for different crimes.  In one case a teacher was arrested for soliciting sex from what he thought was a teenager.  It turned out to be an undercover cop.   Good eye, teacher.

As Bishop shot six people and killed three of them, academic license and freedom of expression can be taken to extremes.   To help filter out the nut jobs , criminals and potential threats to students and faculty, more stringent background checks are in order.  And with the more stringent background checks, colleges and universities should implement much more stringent reviews.  Anyone applying to teach or work on campus should come under greater scrutiny.    Although it may sometimes be too rare or deemed to pedestrian in a campus environment, background checks are the sensible thing.

Better than facing ugly headlines with your school featured in the background as the haul away yet another nut job for shooting up the campus.  Check them out before you hire.