Schools to check workers, volunteers
By Amy Weaver
Herald Times Reporter
TWO RIVERS — Despite extreme misgivings of one board member, the Two Rivers School District adopted a policy Thursday afternoon requiring criminal background checks of new employees and some volunteers.
Don Zimmer opposed the idea of asking every parent and community member who is with students for more than two consecutive hours to give the district consent to look into their past. He repeatedly called the idea ridiculous, absurd and stupid, and, on one occasion, compared the district to Nazi Germany.
“To expect every Tom, Dick and Harry to submit to this is overreacting,” he stressed.
The board’s Policy Committee agreed Aug. 2 a volunteer registration form would be used as a precautionary measure. Each building principal would determine if a check was necessary. A four-page form would be required of all new employees as well as volunteers who help on an overnight basis, or who drive students.
After the Green Bay School District and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh AmeriCorps program neglected to uncover previous criminal activities of employees this year, Two Rivers officials deemed it best to update its practices in a formal policy.
The district’s legal counsel approved the four-page form, but did not review the short form, which generated the most debate Thursday. John Monka was offended at the thought of “tracking” volunteers. Leigh Stegemann expressed concern about the legalities of asking for a Social Security number.
John Webster said the volunteer registration form was designed to be simple, a formality. It contains a mere six items, including name, address, phone number, Social Security number, driver’s license number and date of birth.
Zimmer understood
requiring an extensive check for the people who would be “regularly left alone” with students, but not the consent form. He said the action was “totally overreacting” and “stupid.”
The background check authorization form asks for personal information, as well as criminal and residential history. The district uses the contents to access the national Social Security number search, Wisconsin court records, the national sex offender registry and other state and national databases.
The process costs the district $13 per person.
District Administrator Randy Fredrikson said the Social Security number search is a national criminal history check. The Wisconsin Circuit Court Access Web site divulges various court appearances in the state. The sex offender registry is a national catalog of individuals convicted of sexual crimes.
|
Two Rivers board passes background check policy