en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Wed, 22 May 2013 11:05:29 GMT 15 By Ashlea Gutierrez
The state legislator has mandated that all high schools begin to finger print teachers and staff. This intensive background check will examine all information through the FBI. “The entire state of Texas will be doing this to secure the safety of the students,” Principal Bill Daniels said. While BISD is currently waiting on the OK from central office to begin this process, some schools in the northern part of Texas have already begun this process. “We do background checks already,” Daniels said, “but nothing as extensive as through the FBI.” Schools also receive a list of sex offenders. The finger printings’ purpose is to further investigate the criminal background of those in contact with students. This consists of teachers, substitutes, janitors, lunch servers, etc. However, this list excludes volunteers. “As long as volunteers stay in sight of teachers, they will not have to be finger printed,” Daniels said. Daniels explains that asking volunteers to be fingerprinted may risk discouraging their services. He thinks that if someone willing to volunteer their time to be here may be scared off by the $52 charge of this fingerprinting service. The money charged to faculty and staff will go toward the services used for this process. Each member of the staff will be required to pay this amount to fingerprint a card to be sent off and run through background check. “The records will give information listing back to probably late high school- early college days,” Daniels said. As part of the certification, process new teachers should have already had their finger print check run and notified to the district. “We probably won’t have to do this for new teachers and staff,” Daniels explained. Juvenile records are closed to public access; however, adult records are open and will be looked through for the fingerprinting process. The new process is nothing to be alarmed about, however, Daniels said that if something were to show up on this background check, such as inappropriate behavior with a student, etc., the responsible party would be dismissed from his or her job. ]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:45:00 GMT