Sonoma County, CA, Grand Jury Inquires About Background Checks on School Employees and Volunteers

In recent news, the Sonoma County Grand Jury sent out a survey to all of its 40 school districts. The survey mainly focuses on the background screening policies regarding employees and volunteers and comes in the wake of 2 high-profile arrests of a former Petaluma substitute teacher and a volunteer, both of which ended up pleading guilty in November to molesting a middle-school female wrestler.

At this stage, Petaluma City Schools require all non-parent adult volunteers and teachers, including substitutes, to have fingerprints and criminal background checks. However, substitutes do not have to go through the same involved background check as permanent teachers. Parent volunteers do not have to go through any background screening process at all.

Thus, Carl Wong, superintendent of Sonoma County Schools, feels that this survey could bring about changes and opportunities regarding background checks on volunteers as well as require substitutes to be more closely monitored in the classroom.