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BISD made right decision for our children
Published February 8, 2008
Sad as it is for a school district to have to pay big bucks for advanced background checks on potential and current employees, as well as volunteers, there is no question about the need for a thorough system for vetting people who work with our children — or our money.
That’s why Brazosport ISD’s school board made the right decision in voting to spend $14,620 a year on quality background checks that go far beyond what the district has in place now.
The number of teachers accused of abusing students and staff members caught with their hands in the taxpayer till or worse is high all over the place, it seems. Not all accused offenders have prior history, but schools who aren’t doing everything they can to weed out applicants who do simply are inviting trouble.
On today’s front page is a story about a private school teacher accused of an improper sexual relationship with a student. It is the latest of what has been an alarming number of educators accused of illegal acts. A Brazosport High School teacher last week was removed from the classroom after a U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigation discovered child pornography on his home computer. He has not been charged in that case.
We don’t have to reach much further back or venture far to find an alarming example of the kind of problems that can result when an incomplete background check allows someone with a prior criminal history to ascend to a leadership position.
Brazosport ISD never should have hired Rosa Maria Garcia, the former special programs department chair who has pleaded guilty to a host of charges involving fraud and theft of federal funds. Garcia lied on her employment application when she said she had never been convicted of a felony. In fact, she had been found guilty of misapplication of county funds in El Paso County in 1972. When the Brazosport ISD allegations surfaced more than 30 years later, it was unclear whether a background check had been performed before she was hired.
There is not one foolproof database that will catch every conviction ever leveled against a job applicant. Still, the system Brazosport ISD voted to put in place goes further than anything the district had before.
Texas Safe Schools Project uses an Internet-based employment screening program and allows easy access to more than 200 criminal records databases, including the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Corrections, sex offender data from all states, individual county criminal records and criminal records from other states.
The deal also provides any previous criminal record searches conducted on people in the Safe Schools Project archives.
Those who choose a life in education pledge themselves to a noble cause: shaping young lives. As with any profession, a few unscrupulous people will sully the reputation of others.
The best way to keep that from happening, to protect our children and the vast majority of educators who are honest, hard workers, is to weed out as many unsuitable applicants as possible.
This editorial was written by Yvonne Mintz, managing editor of The Facts.
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