Tougher background checks for teachers?

Question

what brought this question up was the fact that a former school mate of mine was caught in our senior year with a collection of panties he had stolen from girls in our class and now he is a teacher

Answer 1

Was he arrested, or was this a prank? Unless he is still stealing panties, I don't think this is relevant.

Answer 2

My district does a thorough background check.  If the pantie stealer hadn't been prosecuted, then there would be no background to check!

Answer 3

Maybe he has changed!!! when he was a class mate...people do alot of things.

Answer 4

I think that a lot of schools wait to long to do a background check.  When I worked at a school as a coach it took them four weeks before the actual background check came up.  I don't know how they could do a tougher check without violating laws.

Answer 5

Even a tough background check will not find anything other than crimes of which he was convicted after the age of 18.  Juvenile records are sealed.  Things not resulting in convictions would not be found because, legally, they do not exist.

Answer 6

Criminal background checks for teachers are certainly required in every state as far as I know; however, I have yet to be fingerprinted as a teacher, and I've taught for 23 years.  I took a four-year break from education and went into the world of investments; believe me, I was fingerprinted before I was hired.  I guess the conclusion I make from this is that society values money more than children when it comes to security.  It's an unfortunate commentary on our way of doing things.  As for the panties episode, that sounds like a young kid doing something stupid.  When you're young, the law says you can be stupid.  As  you mature, the law says you can't stay stupid.  So hopefully that senior grew up and put away childish pranks.