Dallas schools cracking down
The Dallas Morning News reports on a Dallas Independent School District (DISD) operation to deal with employees with a criminal past. Here's the lead paragraph. The Dallas Independent School District has fired, or forced to resign, 24 employees since November for failing to notify the district of arrests or court judgments for serious crimes, including indecent exposure, theft and felony assault, according to information received from DISD. The employees include nine teachers and a teacher's assistant. DISD also has reported at least 141 educators to the Texas Education Agency for having a criminal background or for running afoul of district [...]
But they already did a background check!
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, officials at the Scioto Youth Camp in Perry County, Ohio and Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, Ohio are pointing fingers at each other over a volunteer camp counselor accused of inappropriately touching three young boys at a church camp. The camp officials say that they didn't do a background check on Timothy Stephen Keil because "his church, Fairfield Christian Church, told them Keil had already passed a background check there to become a Sunday school volunteer." The people at the camp didn't think a second background check was needed. Meanwhile church officials said they [...]
Avoiding lawsuits
Business Journals around the country are running an article titled "Avoiding litigation that will keep you awake at night." You can read the whole article here in the South Florida Business Journal if you have a business journal subscription. In case you don't here are some key points: If there's a bully working for you, you can't sit by and let him or her run roughshod over others. You need to confront the employee, point out the bad behavior and the consequences if it continues. Then deliver the consequences if behavior doesn't change. The article covers several issues like abuses [...]
Trust in God, but do your background checks
I'm a preacher's kid so the workings of churches have a special fascination for me. That's how I happened to be reading an article about New Life Church in Colorado Springs and their search for a new pastor. They've been hunting for a pastor since their founding pastor, Ted Haggard, was fired in November after admitting to an affair with a male prostitute that included drug use. That story was covered by all the major news outlets because Haggard had been a vocal advocate of "family values." As I was reading the article, one sentence jumped out at me. "Ware [...]
Just because it’s your policy doesn’t mean you’re doing it
UCLA is embarrassed. They missed checking a coach with a criminal past: One day after news broke that wide receivers coach Eric Scott was arrested for burglary and had a lengthy list of prior arrests and convictions, Guerrero said the school would reserve judgment until it gathered all the facts, but he also made it clear that it knew little about Scott's past. UCLA isn't alone. In Alabama, consternation reigns at the Dothan City Schools. Another employee with background check issues: [Keaton Lamar] Battle, 34, was arrested last Friday in Donalsonville and charged with two counts of enticing a child [...]
Background checks as part of the hiring process
The NBA is scrambling to deal with a point shaving scandal involving one of its referees. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Big Ten think they have the answer: background checks for referees. Here's how an article in the Baltimore Sun describes the ACC position: For the second season, the ACC is requiring all of its approximately 225 officials for football and men's and women's basketball to allow the league to conduct a background check. Every official will be checked once every four years, and roughly 75 checks are conducted each year. So far the checks have resulted in [...]