Are you ever afraid of sending your children to a school that has an employee with a criminal record? Thanks to a new law that has been passed, parents in Texas do not have to worry. This new law takes fingerprints of all employees, teachers, AND principals. This state law was put into effect on January 1, 2008 and is requiring that EVERY school district completes fingerprinting by September of 2011. "As of Tuesday [November 25, 2008] 10,305 certified employees, teachers and principals" of Dallas ISD have been fingerprinted. Out of the thousands that have been fingerprinted, about 13 percent had criminal records.
Although most of the criminal records were only misdemeanors, 20 were serious charges that were kept secret from DISD. According to a DISD spokesman, 8 of the 20 immediately quit after their secret charges were found. The remaining 12 are currently being terminated. Some of these criminal charges pertained to sexual misconduct, drugs, and burglary. It is scary knowing that these students are around criminals. This law is doing a great thing for the state of Texas.
I believe that this is a great way to keep students and other school employees from being a victim of these criminals. If I were a parent, I would want my kids to go to a safe school where I don't have to worry about my kids being around criminals. This is a great way to keep people safe in school; adults AND children.
"The fingerprinting is doing what it is designed to do." - Allen Gwin, DISD critic.
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"Keeping Students Safe in Texas," a blog written by one of my classmates, regarding fingerprinting of employees of the Dallas school system reveals the frightening truth about some educators in the Texas school systems. Over 10% have criminal records, some with very serious convictions.
It’s also very unsettling the number of criminal records which were revealed after these teachers were hired which must mean they did not complete their job application honestly. I’m relieved to know that the state is now running fingerprints that will ensure that applicants with a criminal background will not be teaching our children. For those criminals, especially with serious convictions, who have already been hired and placed in the classroom, those teachers should lose their jobs for two reasons – 1. They dishonestly completed their job application and answered “no” to the question: “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” and 2. I don’t want a person convicted of a crime, especially a felony, teaching math, English, phys ed, or any other subject to our susceptible and trusting children. Although I don't have any children, one day I will.
It is an unsettling and frightening world and we need to protect our children to the best of our political ability and if that means finger printing educators before putting them in a building with hundreds of other kids, then I say so be it!
Uuhhh… you mean they don’t do background checks for teachers at public schools in Texas? I’m appalled that this is just now happening. This policy should have been in place from day one! I’m glad I read your post, Boolie. I am thinking back to my days in elementary school now and wondering how many of the faculty had criminal records with offenses that would’ve kept them from getting a job there. How scary! I’m very glad that this is finally being done. I wonder what the numbers are of children who’s safety has been compromised because a trusted faculty member was criminally-minded. And what’s even more frightening to me is that this issue has never even crossed my mind. I don’t know if I speak for anyone else, but I guess I’ve just always assumed that our public school systems hire responsibly and that there WAS a system to keep felons and persons with minor-related offenses out of our children’s schools. Maybe I’m being quick to judge, but I feel like we should be embarrassed as a state that we are just now doing this.
I think that this was a good post, both from a structured standpoint and that the author's opinion was based on the facts she collected. I'm not the best speller and a marginal gramarian, but nothing jumped out at me regarding those items. In addition, I think that her structure of the piece was clear and easy to follow. Finally, the author easily demonstrated that her opinion was based on data she collected and not just anecdotal. Great work.
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