background check

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Most of you probably think that I'm BillyMac, a 55 year old environmental chemical analyst from Connecticut, who joined the Forum in August of 2005, and who's favorite Bible passage is John 3:16.

That's the nice thing about the internet. We can be whomever we want to be. I'm real life, I'm just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual, Transylvania.

So your favourite movie then must be that one with John Travolta the lawyer where he cleans out his life savings, and his friends' live savings, going after commercial pollutants.

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Most of you probably think that I'm BillyMac, a 55 year old environmental chemical analyst from Connecticut, who joined the Forum in August of 2005, and who's favorite Bible passage is John 3:16.

That's the nice thing about the internet. We can be whomever we want to be. I'm real life, I'm just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual, Transylvania.

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

So your favourite movie then must be that one with John Travolta the lawyer where he cleans out his life savings, and his friends' live savings, going after commercial pollutants.

Oh. I thought it would be Rocky Horror Picture Show.

(No, Bob, I'm not going to start singing songs from the movie...)

So, to keep this on-topic, I thought I had heard some associations or states have started included background checks on officials, correct? How are those set up? Who gets to see those results, and how are they used?

[BayStateRef]

"Background check" is an awfully broad term. Massachusetts requires schools and youth sports organizations to request criminal information about employees and volunteers who work around children. These records, called CORI, include information about pending cases, convictions and non-conviction criminal case data.

So far, sports officials are not covered by CORI checks. But I found that the state soccer association requires CORI checks for volunteer referees, since the law requires the checks for "all volunteers" of youth organizations.

However, there are no standards that I know that go with this CORI check. Only one person at an organization is supposed to have access to these records, but they have great discretion as to what to do when they get them. They can decide a 15-year-old arrest disqualifies someone or they can decide it was a minor crime by a teen-ager that has no bearing on their ability today. Some organizations have detailed rules to guide these judgments, but most simply follow the minor legal requirements that they obtain the CORI information.

The prevailing view seems to be that those with unsupervised access to children must have a CORI check. Most officials do not have that access. I recall a basketball official last year who had a conviction in New Hampshire for a sex crime with a minor, but was officiating games in Massachusetts. There was a baseball umpire in a nearby town who was charged with a sex crime with a minor. Both of these made me sit up and think about this. I still wonder if basketball officials' associations would be better served by having CORI checks on members and then "promoting" this as a feature of a qualified official.

[OHBBREF]

Originally Posted by BayStateRef

"Background check" is an awfully broad term. .

This is my rub exactly - are we talking Credit issues also? I know that my company looks at that when we hire people, and periodically after you are employed. It is something that you can actually be released for if you credit issues get out of hand.

Originally Posted by BayStateRef

The prevailing view seems to be that those with unsupervised access to children must have a CORI check. Most officials do not have that access.

I understand what the general intent is regarding why they want these checks and I am not opposed to it for that purpose. I just want a very finely defined system for handling such an issue.
I know several officials who had issues that were serious in there past but happened twenty years ago - there have to be specifics on how these are delt with.

Originally Posted by BayStateRef

I still wonder if basketball officials' associations would be better served by having CORI checks on members and then "promoting" this as a feature of a qualified official.

This is a very good idea and keeps the information in the family so to speak where it can be delt with quietly and fairly if the issues have no bearing on the ability to referee nor the expected standards that people are really looking for regarding youth sports.

[Bad Zebra]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

So your favourite movie then must be that one with John Travolta the lawyer where he cleans out his life savings, and his friends' live savings, going after commercial pollutants.

That would be a A Civil Action, also starring William H. Macy and Tony Shaloub (Monk). The story took place in Woburn, Massachusetts about the contaminated water supply from a leather tannery. Great flick!

and returning to the topic at hand...Florida requires level II background checks (whatever that means) of anyone coming in contact with students. The results of the checks are viewed & administered by the local school board only and officials foot the hefty bill (about $65 every 5 years). As a result, other organizations (rec leagues, churches) assume that if an official is registered and working for our state/local association, then they must be "clean". Right or wrong, it saves them the hassle.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Bad Zebra

The story took place in Woburn, Massachusetts about the contaminated water supply from a leather tannery.

You got it. That's my internet persona job. In my pretend internet job, I specialize in water testing. Water from factories (like the movie), water from sewage waste treatment plants, stormwaters (runoff from parking lots, large roofs, etc.), and water from landfill monitoring wells. I often think about sending information about my job to the "Dirty Jobs" show on the Discovery Channel, but my pretend job may be too disgusting for them. I do know a lot of "dirty secrets".