Time to re-examine who's working in our schools?
Baltimore city school officials have grappled in recent months, with having to explain how employees who fill obscure roles in schools end up facing criminal charges, or how those who have past criminal, civil, or serious allegations aren't red-flagged.
It started in July, when City College "contractor" Ryan Coleman was charged with sexual assault of a student. Last week, Tyree Miles, a "temporary" employee was accused of attempting to sell a weapon to a school police officer on school grounds. And this week a "volunteer" at a school was charged with egregious allegations relating to sexually abusing a 14-year-old special ed student.
In each case, the school system had some explanation of why each accusee went undetected: each had passed a background check; the hirings were done at the school level, presumably by the principals, who have the autonomy of staffing their schools; in the most recent case, the boy's blind mother requested that her son have the accused mentor in the school.
All of the questions of hiring practices resurfaced last week as we were also reporting that a principal was removed from her school after an investigation into who she had on the school's payroll.
The school has yet to respond to questions of whether their hiring practices and policies need revisiting, and if hiring at the school-based level needs a bit more oversight.
I'd like to know you if our readers think this was just a bad stretch or a call to action for the school system to re-examine who they, directly or indirectly, are allowing to work with children in city schools?
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
There are always going to be people who "slip through the cracks." Granted, schools are supposed to be extra vigilant but given the number of personnel turnovers the system has had in the past three years, it is a miracle anyone is caught at all. That being said, I find it particularly interesting that in the spring many of the people who had been in the system for 15-25 years were asked to come in to be re-fingerprinted as our print cards had been "lost." How much time/money was wasted on that issue? And then to find out that new hires have criminal backgrounds? Pretty insulting. I can understand the need to recheck people occasionally but it should be some sort of process not a blanket search of seasoned employees. Even substitutes and parent volunteers have to be fingerprinted and then we wonder why we have such a difficult time getting outsiders in the school. I guess that the motto is "Buyer beware."
Posted by: vetern teacher | November 1, 2010 8:34 PM
I know this comment risks putting me on the list of "teacher bashers" that seems to irk most of the commenters on this blog. I have held off for five days, but...
These stories, and the ones like it that are always coming up, are the real reason parents HAVE to be involved in schools. If you have a vulnerable child, whether special needs or just quirky and quiet, you CAN NOT trust that people in the schools will keep your child from harm. Erica has brought up stories have to do with non-typical staff, but not long ago they were stories about bullying that had to do with teachers and administrators. You can go back a few years to a special needs child who was supposed to have a one-on-one aide yet somehow wandered off and died. How can a child be abused or neglected to these terrible levels without anyone noticing? Without anyone taking the time to ask questions and make referrals to a school psychologist of social worker or talk to a paraprofessional?
The people who "slip through the cracks" (per vetern teacher) are less of an issue than the lack of oversight or caring in the school as a whole.
It's a full time job to be present at school every day, to ask questions, to look for signs of abuse when you have a child that can't speak up for themselves. For parents that can't afford this luxury... I have no suggestions. Somehow you HAVE to make the time for face time - in the school, at IEP meetings, etc. This doesn’t mean you’re always there to watch your child, but people know your child has an advocate, so, hopefully, staff and other children will also take care. Vulnerable children, without this type of support, are too much at risk for harm.
Posted by: a parent | November 4, 2010 11:26 AM