Oh yeah, this would work - not!
 

We had our annual referee pizza party for our local kids rec league officials Sunday night and one of the guys told me this unbelievable story. He's a college student and works as an intern for a neighboring county's district attorneys office. He said one of the attorneys in that office asked him if our league would be interested in having some convicts officiate games as part of a work release program. At first, he thought the guy was kidding, but he wasn't.

Yeah, that's just what we need - criminals (possibly a pedophile or two) working with young kids. I can just see us posting guards in the rest rooms.

Anyway, he told the guy we had enough officials, thank you very much, plus we were in a different county, so they couldn't do that anyway. Pretty quick thinking.

Since I live in the "other" county, at least it's not my tax dollars at work with brilliant ideas like that.

I must admit, however, the prospect of having a coach try to argue with a convicted murderer does have some appeal. :rolleyes:

Mark I'm pretty sure convicted murders don't qualify for work release. :D

That DA is a dope. Must be related to the San Francisco DA, Kamala Harris. :rolleyes:

Convicted murderer? I always tell the coaches that I am an auditor with the IRS. I think it works the same.

Tell him to have DA's volunteer as officials first, then he can decide if he thinks it's a good idea.

Now, I'm a long way from ever being accused of being a bleeding-heart liberal, but I'm not sure how it's a bad idea to have someone that's been convicted of securities fraud, or perhaps not paying their parking tickets, to be allowed to ref kids' games? Or, are all convicted criminals the same?

Yup!! Although, I reffed a game one time that was coached by the then police chief of Portland. Before the game, I told him, "Okay if you don't yell at me for my calls, I promise not to follow you around and videotape your arrests, deal?"

He laughed, and left me alone.

Lets just make sure their stripes are horizontal, to tell us apart...

When I was working in the central office of a school system a few years back, the local community service police officer wanted me to take his convicts to do janitorial work in the schools. I politely told him no.

What a great liability situation to have approved a convict to be around kids!

I had an inmate in the jail write me a letter of application for a custodial job. It was kinda sad and funny at the same time. He wanted me to come down to the jail to interview him since he wasn't available to come to my office. He was begging for a second chance in life. I am not against second chances but only in the appropriate situations.

People in the city of Portland don't get parking tickets. They all ride bicycles.

Here is Mark riding HIS bicycle
 

Forgiving is one thing; forgetting is just asking for trouble.

I'm not saying forget, only make a distinction as to who can and who cannot. Of course, a child-molester should never come close to the building, much less be allowed to referee a game. But isn't that different than the guy/gal who refused to pay his bicycle parking tickets? Or is it just better to not allow it at all, just so we don't have to have anyone in charge of making that decision?

I agree that parking tickets are a non-issue. Sex offenders are an issue. Someone's judgment has to come into play.

Shoplifting at 18, non-issue. Grand theft auto, issue. Someone's judgment has to come into play.

Err on the side of caution, IMO.

That said, i don't like the idea of having officiating be an act of community service. It equates it to picking up trash and, frankly, undervalues the difficulty.

I have just moved to FL, which requires background checks & finger prints [so does my industry, so I get to do it 2X]. The Florida State HS association determines who is eligible to work games. I expect it will come to that in all states at some point in time.

So, you could teach a class & see how they do on an exam if they can pass a background check. But, it is risky business in any event.

Yeah - and I just finished hugging that tree behind me.