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"Aware" is a moving target. I think every teacher tries to be "aware" to whatever extent they can. But at some point, one pair of eyes can only see so many spots in the room at once and if you stand there like a hawk and never get to a place where you can actually work with and interact with the kids, you're not really teaching. Allowing someone who may have a background of abusing children to have access by not providing any sort of check allows the few seconds of opportunity needed for them to slip out to take a call, then gain access to a child in the hallway.
Nothing will be perfect. But we must take every reasonable measure to make sure people who gain access to kids when their parents aren't around have been screened.
Someone who has a documented background of abusing children - by this I'm assuming a sex offender conviction - is already not allowed within a certain distance of a school. They are already barred from coming onto school property. They aren't even allowed in the vicinity of a school.
And the people we are talking about ARE PARENTS. Parents of children in the school. I don't know what on earth it is that a parent of a child that goes to that school volunteering in a classroom is going to do to a child in that classroom.
I volunteered every morning last year to help serve and clean up the kindergarten breakfast in my kid's class, so the teacher could concentrate on better things than housekeeping. Between her, the special ed aide and people coming and going, not to mention the 25 sets of eyes - I don't know what I could possibly have gotten away with that would constitute any kind of abuse.
It is easier for the school (and thus safer) if all volunteers who come into contact with kids are held to the same standard. There is nothing wrong with making sure felons are not in the classroom.
So your school has just opted to have no one in the classroom, because the background checks are so expensive and unwieldy, and would be ridiculous to implement every year. You never or very rarely utilize the parents' help in that regard.
Great for you, but that's not a solution for all schools.
So your school has just opted to have no one in the classroom, because the background checks are so expensive and unwieldy, and would be ridiculous to implement every year. You never or very rarely utilize the parents' help in that regard.
Great for you, but that's not a solution for all schools.
What are you talking about? Where did I say we have no volunteers? We have lots of volunteers, they just have to pass a background check. I think they have to get checked every 5 years, not every year. They also pay the fee for the check themselves.
It is EASY to pass a background check. I get it your nose is out of joint that your husband is a felon and many people judge him by that, rightly or wrongly. That doesn't mean that most parents are felons. They are not. Less than 8% of the population are felons, not even close to the majority of people. WE have plenty of volunteers. We are lucky that our parents are willing to volunteer where they are most needed.
Now I will speak as a parent. I don't know you, or your husband. You could be lying about the circumstances of his conviction. Because of that, I would not want your husband or any felon, to chaperone my children on a school sponsored trip. My rights as a parent are just as valid, actually more so based on the fact that more and more schools (public and private) are moving to prevent felons from volunteering with kid, as your desire to let him do whatever he wants.
Wow, I had no idea this topic would raise such as controversy. In my district, it is the police department who makes the final decision who passes or who doesn't pass the background check.
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Originally Posted by nana053
Teachers are not told anything about the background checks. They are given a list of those who want to volunteer who have passed and generally assume that anyone else did not want to volunteer which is often true. Teachers do not get lists of people who submitted their information and did not pass.
This is also true in my area. If parents do not choose to have a background check they simply do not "choose" to volunteer in the school or to go on fieldtrips. Sometimes parents will pick up the forms from school but not turn them into the police department. The school also doesn't not keep track of that.
BTW Picture a typical fieldtrip to a museum, or to the zoo, or a farm. Not all 25 or 30 students will be in constant view of the actual teacher at all times. That is why you have parent chaperones, so that they can walk with & supervise a small group of 3 to 5 children. Of course, normally you are near each other, but when Johnny needs to use the bathroom all 30 kids & adults don't just stand outside the bathroom waiting for him to go. That would be silly. But, Johnny's group of 2 to 4 other kids plus a parent will all go and find the bathroom and wait for him.
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Originally Posted by lkb0714
It is easier for the school (and thus safer) if all volunteers who come into contact with kids are held to the same standard. There is nothing wrong with making sure felons are not in the classroom.
My school district normally has two to three times the amount of parents that they need volunteer to go on each fieldtrip, so weeding out the felons/or other people who fail the background check is not a problem.
If you are the felon, you can always take your child to the zoo, museum or farm on the weekend instead of volunteering at school to chaperone that fieldtrip. Or do it on election day, as you can't vote anyway (at least in my state).
Wow, I had no idea this topic would raise such as controversy. In my district, it is the police department who makes the final decision who passes or who doesn't.
This is also true in my area. If parents do not choose to have a background check they simply do not "choose" to volunteer in the school or to go on fieldtrips.
BTW Picture a typical fieldtrip to a museum, or to the zoo, or a farm. Not all 25 or 30 students will be in constant view of the actual teacher at all times. That is why you have parent chaperones, so that they can walk with & supervise a small group of 3 to 5 children. Of course, normally you are near each other, but when Johnny needs to use the bathroom all 30 kids & adults don't just stand outside the bathroom waiting for him to go. That would be silly. But, Johnny's group of 2 to 4 other kids plus a parent will all go and find the bathroom and wait for him.
My school district normally has two to three times the amount of parents that they need volunteer to go on each fieldtrip, so weeding out the felons/or other people who fail the background check is not a problem.
If you are the felon, you can always take your child to the zoo, museum or farm on the weekend instead of volunteering at school. Or do it on election day, as you can't vote anyway (at least in my state).
There is a particular parent here who has a felon for a husband. She is annoyed that her husband would be disallowed from volunteering in the classroom or on a trip. Oh well.
There is a particular parent here who has a felon for a husband. She is annoyed that her husband would be disallowed from volunteering in the classroom or on a trip. Oh well.
Firstly, you're very rude.
Secondly, my husband is not disallowed from any such thing, I simply asked you if he should be. You ran with that like someone who's pants are on fire.
His decades old conviction has no bearing in this district, you'll be upset to know. Although the teachers who he built the garden shed for 2 weekends ago certainly aren't. They wish there were more like him, and have said as much on several occasions. Nobody treats him like a felon, lol. I'm sure you would though.
And here's where you said you have no classroom volunteers:
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Originally Posted by lkb0714
My school is highly successful, in large part to parental participation. I would bet our PTSA is one of the best and most supportive to be found anywhere. Yet, 90% of what they do, is done outside of school hours. There are NO classroom volunteers, no one makes copies, or supervises lunch/recess. Besides the occasional picking up of mail, the do almost nothing during school hours.
Um, you also said they get checked every year:
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
This notion that there are these hordes of SAHMs in the classroom is bizarre to me.
Maybe it is a regional difference but parents are rarely allowed to volunteer in the classroom, they would have to get fingerprinted/background checked every year and it becomes a paperwork night mare for the school to keep track of who is or is not allowed in the classroom. On the rare occasion it is allowed, volunteers are not allowed in their own kids rooms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
What are you talking about? Where did I say we have no volunteers? We have lots of volunteers, they just have to pass a background check. I think they have to get checked every 5 years, not every year. They also pay the fee for the check themselves.
My husband may have been convicted of something 20 years ago, but at least he can keep his story straight.
There is a particular parent here who has a felon for a husband.
NO particulars have been shared. But a heck of a lot of conclusions have been jumped to.
This wide-spread, all-inclusive, felon fear would also keep Martha Stewart from volunteering in a classroom. And an 83 year old nun named Sister Megan Rice. Congratulations, America. Your felon hangup is keeping America's children safe from the Martha's home-baked three-cheese bread.
Lkb0714 is far scarier to me than Mr. FinsterRufus...
Legitimate, documented child abusers/offenders are not allowed near schools in the first place. The background check requirement for all volunteers is worse than useless - it causes real harm by misdirecting funds that could be better used toward education, by restricting the number of available volunteers in schools which desperately need them, by asserting that parents are unwelcome at the school their own children attend and which they are paying for without first undergoing an odious invasion of privacy. The only beneficiaries of these stupid, yes stupid, policies are the companies which market and sell the obligatory training courses and background checks while the children lose.
From another standpoint, DH is an attorney and we understand too well how unevenly the 'law' is applied, not to mention that such policies imply that one's punishment will never end. And really, would any of us want George Zimmerman or Casey Anthony volunteering in our classrooms? They were acquitted after all... Squeaky clean!
And you are very emotional. So I guess we are even.
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Secondly, my husband is not disallowed from any such thing, I simply asked you if he should be. You ran with that like someone who's pants are on fire.
You should read more carefully I said "WOULD". Not "IS".
Quote:
His decades old conviction has no bearing in this district, you'll be upset to know. Although the teachers who he built the garden shed for 2 weekends ago certainly aren't. They wish there were more like him, and have said as much on several occasions. Nobody treats him like a felon, lol. I'm sure you would though.
Well he IS a felon.
Second, I could careless what your district does, I neither teach there nor have children there. I think we can both be grateful that felons are allowed in your classrooms and not in mine
Quote:
And here's where you said you have no classroom volunteers:
Um, you also said they get checked every year:
Again, reading comprehension, I said "rarely" and that was specific to classroom volunteers. We get lots of volunteers for chaperoning trips. OTOH, it is a wealthy area where they can afford to hire reading specialists and people to make photocopies. When we actually need volunteers at after school events or to chaperone trips we get so many we have to turn them away.
I know when we ask for volunteers every year, the application process starts again, but if they have been fingerprinted in the last few years I think they just use that set again to fill out the rest of the application.
Lkb0714 is far scarier to me than Mr. FinsterRufus...
Legitimate, documented child abusers/offenders are not allowed near schools in the first place. The background check requirement for all volunteers is worse than useless - it causes real harm by misdirecting funds that could be better used toward education, by restricting the number of available volunteers in schools which desperately need them, by asserting that parents are unwelcome at the school their own children attend and which they are paying for without first undergoing an odious invasion of privacy. The only beneficiaries of these stupid, yes stupid, policies are the companies which market and sell the obligatory training courses and background checks while the children lose.
From another standpoint, DH is an attorney and we understand too well how unevenly the 'law' is applied, not to mention that such policies imply that one's punishment will never end. And really, would any of us want George Zimmerman or Casey Anthony volunteering in our classrooms? They were acquitted after all... Squeaky clean!
Less than 8% of americans are convicted felons who would be disallowed from volunteering in schools. Not going to make a difference in the number of volunteers. I would also like to point out that the TEACHERS in this thread have not stated that there is an overwhelming lack of classroom volunteers/chaperones. In fact they have said quite the opposite.
My school does not desperately need volunteers. There is no redirecting of funds associated with background checks.
The fallacy of pretending that anyone here has stated that background checks are the end all be all of protecting students is ridiculous. Background checks are a simple idea, that no one claims are perfect, but are a step in the right direction.
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