As schools begin to expand their background checks for volunteers, more people are complaining about the checks, citing that their civil rights are being violated.
Robert Smith, a parent of a kindergarten student at West University Elementary School in Houston, Texas, was surprised to learn that he was required to undergo a criminal background check in order to attend his son’s field day. He agreed to the background check under protest stating, “There go more of our civil rights.” School officials later told him that he could have attended without a criminal background check, but he would have been required to stay behind a fence in a restricted area.
West University Elementary is also going to require criminal background checks for any parents wishing to join their children for an end of the school year celebration. The principal of the school, John Threet, has said the checks are important because not everyone in attendance can be monitored by teachers and staff.
West University Elementary is one of the schools found who is remarkably strict about running background checks, but more and more schools are adopting a policy of screening all of their volunteers. Opponents have stated that schools will lose prospective volunteers because of background checks and submitting to the checks is a violation of civil rights.
This is interesting because on the one hand, it is not violating civil rights if you are agreeing to the procedure, but on the other hand, this might overall discourage parents’ involvement in the children’s’ schooling because of the inconvenience. That is the last thing we need to encourage.
This seems a bit extreme to me. The school does not want any of the students parents to attend a function without a background check? Maybe it would be more fair to have the parents screened when their child starts attending the school? I am not sure what I think about this, but i do think that parents should be involved in childrens school activities.
Personally, I think this is taking things too far. I’m all for our childrens safety, but I’m certainly not going to sit out of my childs end of the year class party because I have a 6 year old misdemeanor on my record. Screen all school employees, after all they should be the ones keeping an eye on the children around parents in attendence anyway right?
I think the phrase “civil rights” is thrown around too casually these days. It’s true, you have a constitutional right to privacy. The courts have ruled that this privacy right applies when you are “in private” (like in your home, your car, etc.) and not when you’re in public. It’s not a violation of civil rights to say: if you want to hang out at an elementary school (or volunteer, or whatever) we want to make sure that our students are safe, and the best tool we have to effect that is to run a background check on you first. That’s reasonable. And frankly, if you don’t have a criminal record, then who cares? Does it matter that they ran a check that came back saying, “no records found”? Do you feel particularly vulnerable or exposed because of that? Not at all. On the other hand, I would feel vulnerable if my kids went to a school that allowed adults on campus, interacting with students, without any idea who these people are or what they’ve done. The real civil rights issue here is the children’s right to life and the pursuit of happiness. Let’s face it, even one incident of rape, molestation, or kidnapping would be enough for us all to set our rights aside for the sake of the victimized child.
I would think that as a parent it would be a reassurance to know that adults spending extensive time with my child and others must submit to a criminal check at the least. I can’t understand why any parent would be so put out by the hassle of a quick, easy background check that they would want to compromise their child’s safety. No one wants their child to be the next news headline, but they complain about a sensible way to prevent harm to children?
It is a invasion of privacy but with today’s wacked out kids and parents it is sad to say that this is what it has come to. I am always questionable of what they do with the information that is collected. With the internet and finding so much out on people I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t used some way and posted on some site out there. Nothing is kept a secret and in some way or form it call always be used against you or for you sometime down the road.
The phrase “civil rights” is thrown around too casually today. You have a right to privacy. You *don’t* have a right to hide your criminal past and go hang out on a school playground. There is no reason to fear a criminal background check if you don’t have a criminal past. This is not a violation of anyone’s rights.
Volunteering is (hence the name) a voluntary act. If a school is having trouble finding volunteers willing to submit to the checks, the school could always change the policy. I would think that as a parent it would be reassuring to know that criminal checks are a matter of course for anyone spending extensive time with my child and others.
I think anyone who volunteers or will be in close interaction with a group of childeren should be screened.
I voted No because anyone who will interact with a group of childeren should be screened. Sex Offenders are everywhere and if they were not screened and something happened the school would be held liable.
Anyone working with kids should be screened.