School Volunteer Background Checks: Keeping Sex Offenders Out of the Classroom

In Neenah, Wisconsin, parents were upset to find out a school volunteer at a Neenah elementary school was identified as a sex offender. The school volunteer was a father who came to his son's class at Washington Elementary School.

The school district said a background check was not required but is taking action to change that.

"It's very disappointing that this hasn't been thought of ahead of time," said Joshua Vanden Heuvel, a parent of a child attending Neenah School District.  "I hope we don't come across anything more like this."

A sex offender in the classroom

And in another state, some leaders in the Monroe Public School District are coming under fire after a registered sex offender was volunteering in an elementary classroom.

"It's scary," said Cory Yinger, a father of a fifth-grader at Custer Elementary in Monroe. This week Yinger said he got a message from the school involving a parent volunteer. It turned out that the parent is a registered sex offender.  "I was surprised," said Yinger. "They shouldn't be letting these people in the schools at all."

District leaders say the 47-year-old man is the parent of a first-grader at Custer Elementary and was volunteering in the classroom for several weeks before the school issued a background check.

"It's like a parent and school district’s worst nightmare to have something like this happen," said Dr. Barry Martin, superintendent of Monroe Public Schools.

Dr. Martin said the first-grade teacher notified school officials that the parent had been volunteering for several weeks without having a background check.

"Once we found that out, we acted immediately,” said Dr. Martin. “In fact, he has been banned from the building and from the classroom and we contacted law enforcement and they are dealing with it." 

Do you know who is a school volunteer at your child’s school each day? 

 A school volunteer is an important part of school administration and activities. Whether it’s a PTO or PTA, Booster Club, tutor, Kindergarten reader, or other role, volunteers – often parents – fill important vacancies in the course of a school day.

No doubt, most school volunteers are indeed dedicated and wonderful people. However, this is not ALWAYS the case.  

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON VISITOR MANAGEMENT FROM SAFE HIRING SOLUTIONS

To keep schools secure and children safe, volunteers need to submit to a high-quality background check just as employees are required. Anyone that comes into contact with kids and is present on school property can be a potential security risk -- falling through the cracks if a thorough background check is not conducted.  

Screening a school volunteer who is also a parent

Think it can’t happen in your city or town?  Sadly, stories like the ones mentioned above can and do happen in our schools because either there is no process set-up for screening volunteers or background checks are delayed or even waived because the volunteer is a parent that the administration THINKS it knows. 

Reality dictates that just because the school volunteer is a parent (and maybe even a well-known parent) you will not always know who they are or what risk they might pose. 

In the past, having someone simply sign in at the front desk or reception area was adequate. In today’s world where schools are increasingly becoming a target for predators and for violence, knowing the history of your volunteers is mandatory if you want to keep your children and schools safe.

Safe Hiring Solutions works with schools and school districts to conduct high-quality, thorough background screening for school volunteers just as we do for school employees. Our system is the only system in the U.S. that is integrated with comprehensive national background checks to ensure that volunteers do not have unsuitable criminal histories.

Do you need help in screening your school volunteer base?

CLICK HERE to ensure that your school volunteers are SAFE people to fill those important roles that your school needs to thrive. You can also register for a SafeVisitor demonstration here.