Criminal Background Checks For Prom Dates

[Dreadsox]

I think we have to be careful about branding people with Scarlet Letters...

I can understand this....However....let's say you have a kindergarten student and a person with various criminal activities volunteers to chaperone.....

Do you think the school should have the right to deny a person the ability to chaperone based on criminal record?

I had to write an explaination for something that came up on me related to my driving record. It happened in 1989...apparently my license was suspended and I was not supposed to be driving. Oooppsssss... I did not know my license was suspended at the time... minor communication problem between my father and I about excise taxes while I was away at college.

Anyways.....

 

[anitram]

I went back to visit an old teacher/mentor of mine at the high school from which I graduated over 8 years ago, just last week.

And it struck me then, looking at it as an adult with life experience and so on, that the amount of bureaucracy in our schools is absolutely astounding. And that the administration often tends to really overestimate their position in the chain of command when making decisions that affect daily life in the schools. The funny thing is, when I was in school, we'd complain about how stifling and anal they could be, but now, taking a detached view of it, I think the admin (sans Dread...) can do so much more harm than good when they are allowed to start making their own policy decisions.

As for this rule, I'm not necessarily opposed to background checks (I've had them done myself for certain places of employment), but this case seems like much ado about nothing, IMO.

 

[melon]

The problem with education is that everyone remembers the BAD administrators or teachers. And EVERYONE knows at least one bad teacher. Its the teachers who are stready and do the little things day in and day out that are forgotten. That is a shame.

Well, I spent my elementary and high school years in small schools, so it was not hard to know absolutely everybody. Why I remember the bad ones was because they were so appallingly bad. I remember my sixth grade teacher, for instance, telling my parents that I was crazy for having an interest in WWII history. Would she have preferred that I have no interest at all and fail out of history altogether? And does this mean that historians who spend their entire life specializing in WWII history are all psychotic?

What I hated about school was the early realization that everyone was going to treat me like stupid cattle until I was old enough to be considered an "equal." That's why I have a pretty large grudge against authority figures, because I discovered how "fallible" they were at an early age.

And this is why, even today, I'm always prepared to give kids the benefit of the doubt when everyone else is ready to write them off as stupid cattle.

Draconian school administrative actions, including these background checks, do nothing but instill hatred for authority figures in the adults of tomorrow. There's a big difference for banning a murderer from coming into the school and banning someone who had a prior marijuana offense.

Melon

 

[Dreadsox]

Most of the beaurocracy in schools surrounds keeping up with the demands of the laws created arround various issues. Certification demands, Special Needs Demands.....

I am a teaching vice principal....I teach half a day and I am a VP half a day for a school of 600 students. You go to a middle school or high school and it is unheard of. The assumption is little people, little problems.

I believe in the next twenty years, there will be a shift to a two tiered administration....one surrounding education....one surrounding the physical plant.

 

[Dreadsox]

And this is why, even today, I'm always prepared to give kids the benefit of the doubt when everyone else is ready to write them off as stupid cattle.

And I am finding more and more that the students respect me because they know I am going to give them a fair shake....I am not there to hang them up.

But I digress......

Do you think columbine has changed things? I do believe Dennis Yarmouth or a school near them had uncovered something along those lines within the past year. I have a feeling that this may have something to do with it.

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

This probably belongs in a separate thread but I'm interested in what people think is appropriate school discipline. What works, in your opinion?

Are there any consequences that change the behavior of students?

 

[BVS]

I can understand this....However....let's say you have a kindergarten student and a person with various criminal activities volunteers to chaperone.....

Do you think the school should have the right to deny a person the ability to chaperone based on criminal record?

Well like I agreed to before, I find nothing wrong with background checks for employment or volunteer work, especially with children. But I think there needs to be logic when used. Why should I be denied working with children due to a moving violation if I'm not driving them anywhere, or a minor in pocession from 5 years ago when now I'm legal and have no other marks. I think just placing a blanket, you have something on your record so we deny your employment is illogical.

 

[melon]

Do you think columbine has changed things? I do believe Dennis Yarmouth or a school near them had uncovered something along those lines within the past year. I have a feeling that this may have something to do with it.

The seeds of what caused Columbine were even in my schools. There was a clear dichotomy between who was "popular" and who was "unpopular," and even the teachers and administration would generally support it. The popular kids essentially got away with murder, whereas if the unpopular ones retaliated, even if verbally, they'd often get reprimanded. Even at that, extracurricular activities (from sports to clubs) almost always are highly skewed towards "conventional interests." After all, look at all the outright hostility towards gay-straight alliances in schools? In other words, schools are de-facto conformity factories, and I think many schools are ill-equipped to deal with the minority whose interests fall outside the mainstream, whether it be merely an interest in unconventional sports or otherwise.

I'm not sure how much of this has really changed since I was in school, but, at least at the macro level nationwide, there's a general lack of acknowledgment that minority opinions do exist and are, for the most part, just as valid as the majority's lifestyle.

And when this isn't acknowledged, some people are driven to violence, if only because they feel that they have exhausted all other chances for validity.

Melon

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

Even at that, extracurricular activities (from sports to clubs) almost always are highly skewed towards "conventional interests." After all, look at all the outright hostility towards gay-straight alliances in schools? In other words, schools are de-facto conformity factories, and I think many schools are ill-equipped to deal with the minority whose interests fall outside the mainstream, whether it be merely an interest in unconventional sports or otherwise.



Melon

In many districts the school board plays a large role in what "interests" are supported. The school board "represents" the community. The school board dictates what interests are represented at my school. Teachers and administration have no say in whether the GSA is a school sponsored club or not.

 

[melon]

In many districts the school board plays a large role in what "interests" are supported. The school board "represents" the community. The school board dictates what interests are represented at my school. Teachers and administration have no say in whether the GSA is a school sponsored club or not.

Well, don't get me started on school boards. Talk about a way of getting the most shrill and incompetant people you can possibly find to run a school. I think most school board members should not be allowed to set foot within 1000 feet of a school.

So maybe the solution is to abolish school boards.

Melon

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

Well, don't get me started on school boards. Talk about a way of getting the most shrill and incompetant people you can possibly find to run a school. I think most school board members should not be allowed to set foot within 1000 feet of a school.

So maybe the solution is to abolish school boards.

Melon

I could not agree more.

 

[indra]

In other words, schools are de-facto conformity factories, and I think many schools are ill-equipped to deal with the minority whose interests fall outside the mainstream, whether it be merely an interest in unconventional sports or otherwise.

Melon

I know someone who calls schools "human sausage factories." Quite a vivid image, but I don't disagree.

He's not in the US either, so it's certainly not just confined to here.

 

[Bono's shades]

Well, don't get me started on school boards. Talk about a way of getting the most shrill and incompetant people you can possibly find to run a school. I think most school board members should not be allowed to set foot within 1000 feet of a school.

So maybe the solution is to abolish school boards.

Melon

I just read a letter to the editor in our paper from a guy who happens to be on the school board in one of the school districts near where I live. The letter said gays are "mistakes of nature" and they should "go back into the closet."

I'm not saying all the local school board members are like him. It's just a sad statement on our society that someone like that could get elected in the first place. He was writing nutty letters to the editor long before he got elected.

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

You know, the thing about schools is, everyone seems to be able to identify the problems. (teachers, administrators, community members) What are the solutions? Hell, I'd take suggestions.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I can understand this....However....let's say you have a kindergarten student and a person with various criminal activities volunteers to chaperone.....

Do you think the school should have the right to deny a person the ability to chaperone based on criminal record?

I had to write an explaination for something that came up on me related to my driving record. It happened in 1989...apparently my license was suspended and I was not supposed to be driving. Oooppsssss... I did not know my license was suspended at the time... minor communication problem between my father and I about excise taxes while I was away at college.

Anyways.....

i feel your pain... literally... almost the exact same thing happened to me.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Well that's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't mean it's right.

What next no one with a GPA under C can't go?

actually... where i went to high school and where i used to work ( ) did have a stipulation where if you were on academic probation you could not attend any and all "non-educational" school activities... which included participation in athletics, dances, and yes, even prom.

 

[nbcrusader]

actually... where i went to high school and where i used to work ( ) did have a stipulation where if you were on academic probation you could not attend any and all "non-educational" school activities... which included participation in athletics, dances, and yes, even prom.

I bet students who have criminal records would be barred from activities such as a prom, why would you open the door to non-students (frequently college age and older) with criminal records?

Has the prom become a full entitlement package?

 

[WildHoneyAlways]

The prom information packet that students at my school receive when they purchase prom tickets states that non-student prom attendees are subject to police background checks.

I'm not surprised. I asked a few students about it today and they didn't seem too upset by it.

 

[randhail]

One of the local Boston tv stations said that Dennis-Yarmouth have changed their mind and will let them go to the prom, but the school also defended their original decision...perhaps they didn't like seeing their school on the front page of the Boston Herald and caved.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

another prom issue

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/my...tm?source=rss&channel=myrtlebeachonline_local

"The alcohol-themed items may "seem harmless, but the world has changed to where everybody is sensitive," said Hugh Wallace, assistant principal.

"We would never have a prom pledge and then do something that says the opposite," he said.

Conway High School senior Kurt Gerald, 17, said all the fuss is much ado about nothing. He and the other Conway students got a mug and a photo album, according to Collins, the teacher who coordinated the prom.

"I don't think it promoted drinking and thought it was a nice party favor," said Gerald about the mug that now sits in his china cabinet.

"They should give teens a little more trust and trust us to use our judgment, instead of stereotyping us."

Boston Herald


"Superintendent Carol Woodbury said in a statement they will allow the prom dates to hit the dance floor while the school and police continue to “investigate the matter.”
The state is looking into whether school administrators broke the law when they ran Criminal Offender Record Information checks on nonstudents attending the prom and allegedly didn’t get their consent. State law allows schools to run CORI checks on school volunteers. Violation of the CORI law can mean up to a year in jail or up to a $5,000 fine.
“There is a very legitimate need for CORI information for schools, but we need to make sure those who access CORI information are doing so properly and for the appropriate reasons,” said Kelly Nantel of the Criminal History Systems Board. "