In what is becoming a long list of governmental agencies, school boards, public service agencies, and what have you, another school board has been cited for not conducting background checks. According to an article in Mid-Hudson News Network, the Mt. Vernon City School District disregards the law when it failed to conduct background checks on its prospective and current employees. Although the district developed polices and procedures, they didn’t follow up on them. Like buying seat belts and not bothering to wear them while driving.
Mt. Vernon’s procedural policy calls for the District officials to perform fingerprint-supported background checks for all prospective and current non-instructional employees who have direct contact with students,. Didn’t happen. One can assume in a lousy economy the school district was trying to shave a few bucks from its budget. This wouldn’t be the first time and the only district where questionable cost cutting had occurred. Nevertheless, the District appears to not only be ignoring the law but leaving the door open for convicted felons and child molesters to gain proximity to children.
There are smarter ideas. In general, and certainly not only with this school district, I am starting to think this brand of hiring without employment screening should be considered as some new form or abstraction of a faith based hiring method where officials resort to hopes and good wishes rather than the background checks themselves. I don’t know, but in far too many cases, avoiding background checks or running them and giving them short shrift has a way of coming back to bite the employer. More than a few governmental agencies have made the news for less than flattering events, things like an employee is discovered to have a previous criminal records or, worse, commits an offense against a client, child, or fellow employee.
We mean it when we suggest that you always check them out before you hire.