Looks like the Board of Education, in Marietta, Georgia, has worked out a compromise on its policy about conducting background checks on school volunteers. In September, the Board had adopted a policy where it would conduct background checks on volunteers and eliminate anyone who had felonies or violent misdemeanors within the last seven years. According to an article in the News And Sentinel, it looks like the School Board is trying to work something out that would be equitable and yet still protect the children and other employees.
There have been protests about this policy as concerned parents who wished to volunteer felt they were being prohibited from doing so because of past criminal records. The major question was what does someone’s past have to do with concern for his or her children? And isn’t the desire to participate in their children’s events a more overriding factor than past transgressions? This situation does not just apply to the Marietta Schools but to different school boards around the country. I have written articles about it. One such article is entitled Further Controversy on Background Checks and School Volunteers. In some locations the call for background checks met with less rancor than in other places.
The School Board agreed to consider adding in categories for different volunteers. The volunteers would then have to subscribe to the different standards for the different categories. Proximity to children would be one key category that would require greater scrutiny. At least, I imagine that would be the case. Volunteers overseeing concession stands and such may be held to lesser standards. Someone argued that last year they had five hundred volunteers and some were convicted felons. One was a serious drug trafficker. Which makes it for some tough to back off a stricter policy.
But it looks like the School Board is determined to develop a fair and balanced policy. We shall see what the end result will be, but so far I think most will be agreeable to the final standard.
