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For several years as a Safety Officer in our league I conducted the Megan's Law checks, and applaud the decision to make them mandatory. Our best chance to keep abusers away from our kids is to loudly and and publicly declare that we check all adult volunteers.
My experience is that it will be very important to note to volunteers that these are checks for child abusers. Many people are concerned when they hear the phrase "background checks" that someone will find out that they were arrested for shoplifting 20 years ago. That isn't and shouldn't be the focus.
I also found that a few people are absolutely unwilling to provide their social security number. It isn't that they have something to hide, but I found that their concern is nearly a religious belief in the sanctity of that number. It will be critical for LL to keep and maintain the strictest confidentiality of social security numbers for all volunteers.
Dennis Wickham
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