Background investigation release form

[CLBuffalo]

A few years ago I helped form a youth softball league. I was the group’s UIC. As part of the process all the people involved submitted to a background check by a state agency. Only one designated person in the group received the information. By law it could not be shared with anyone else. There was something in my background that turned the person’s head but it was not a cause for dismissing me from the group. To this day I have no idea what it was but I do know that whatever it was it was not sex related. After this I have never submitted to this process again and never will.

I certainly understand background checks for certain officers of a group and for those who are entrusted with the safety and well being of youth players. As an umpire or as a UIC only, I would never be in that position except to apply and enforce safety rules. My credit history, work history, school history, etc. have absolutely nothing to do with my umpiring and wouldn’t reveal any kind of predisposition to any kind of sexual aberration. Background checks for a previous pedophile would at best prevent a repeat offense. Only due diligence can prevent a new offense.

I was a youngster at the time of Senator McCarthy. I remember almost everyone thinking that there was at least one communist in every classroom, in every store, in every family, in every public gathering, etc. I was even led to believe that President Eisenhower was possibly a communist. Those feelings lasted well after Senator McCarthy left the senate.

If a school or organization required a background check of umpires I would not fight it. I just wouldn’t umpire for them. Fighting that kind of thinking and mind set is a lost cause. The supplemental income I get from umpiring would be missed but not worth the sacrifice.

There are and have been secure societies: Cuba, Russia, Germany. Would anyone umpire in them?

"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither" - Benjamin Franklin