Quote:
Originally Posted by ref1986
It's important to note that the PA law does not single out officials. It applies to anyone who is employed either as salaried or hourly employee or independent contractor by a school district or other school entity. It also applies to day care centers, facilities for the mentally handicapped, social service agencies that work with children, etc.
Ok - no problems here.
Second, the clearances that new officials must provide do not contain raw information. They certify that no disqualifying information under the law was found. Who is "they? The state police? An outside agency? The PIAA? Who actually has access to the raw data and determines whether the official meets the criteria? For those of us who have a military background or had another type of job where a clearance was required, you know you either got the clearance or you didn't. But the clearance your boss got on you did not contain any raw information about you. In PA the state police have been doing background checks for decades. I have never heard of a single leak of information. And how about the hundreds of thousands the FBI does annually? You mean like the unauthorized ones that were leaked on members of Congress a year or so back?
Finally, officials can submit copies of their clearances to the PIAA. The PIAA web site will note for each official when each clearance was received. ADs can go online and see if an official is cleared, just as schools can go to an online state database to see if teachers are cleared.
The law is the law. The chance of it being changed to exempt officials is someplace to the far side of none. No, I'm not talking about exempting officials if all other similar employees and contractors remain that law. But, if "the law is the law" is the overriding factor, and we don't have a choice, then wouldn't we all still be under British rule?  So while it may make some people feel good to vent about how unfair it is, in PA you have a simple choice: get the clearances or don't officiate. |
If you're telling me that the state police collect the data, then provide essntially a "Clear" or "Not Clear" to the PIAA, then I agree with how it's handled. That eliminates my objection to providing a non-law enforcement agency with information they don't need. And if the law applies to everyone who deals with kids, and not simply adding officials to the list, then it's being applied fairly.
But I still haven't been shown there's a problem that these background checks correct.