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Well-intentioned law results in a nightmare for schools

By C.T. BOWEN
Published July 1, 2005

In their well-intentioned push to rewrite Florida's laws dealing with sex offenders after the Jessica Lunsford horror, legislators have created a monster of a problem for school officials.

It is the classic unintended consequence, a nightmare scenario that lawmakers never anticipated as they crafted measures to shut dangerous legal loopholes. That does not mean the impact is any less real for the school officials who must deal with the aftershocks.

The Jessica Lunsford Act, passed on May 2 after the abduction and murder of the 9-year-old Homosassa girl, tightens penalties for convicted sex offenders and increases restrictions on them if they are ever released from prison.

To increase security for students, part of the new law also calls for full background checks and fingerprinting of "any vendor, individual or entity under contract with the School Board" through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The goal of this requirement is laudable. No one would argue with our schools having greater knowledge of the people who come onto campus and who could interact with students. John Couey, a convicted sex offender who stands accused of kidnapping, assaulting and slaying Jessica, at one time was a construction worker at her Citrus County school.

The problem is that the law does not spell out the implementation of these rules.

One interpretation of the measure is that anyone on campus - from volunteers such as chaperones and mentors to the delivery people and sales representatives - must now be fingerprinted and have his or her background searched. Investigating every soul who steps onto a campus would be an overwhelming task.

The Pasco school district already fingerprints new employees. Volunteers are screened using a national data base of sexual predators and by a standard criminal background check through the Pasco Sheriff's Office. However, the volunteers are not fingerprinted. The new law extends the fingerprinting provision to every adult.

This raises a multitude of important questions, not the least of which is: Who will pay the cost for these thousands of records checks, which cost on average $61 each? The expense will be daunting. Consider, for instance, the implications on the Great American Teach-in each November when 2,000 volunteers come to Pasco schools in a single day.

"It's cost prohibitive," said Dick Tauber who coordinates volunteers for the school district. "If you start asking volunteers to pay $60, they're not going to come."

How far does the law's reach extend? To the salespeople working for copier companies and school ring makers? To booster club parents selling peanuts at football games? To air-conditioning technicians and locksmiths?

The law leaves these and many other important questions unresolved.

School officials around the state are eagerly awaiting guidance and specificity from Tallahassee, but the clock is ticking. The districts must have a plan in place by Sept. 1 to implement this law.

Legislators have tried to reassure school officials that these loose ends will be handled. Historically, that is true. When laws emerge from a crisis, the unexpected problems are dealt with in subsequent legislation once the dust settles.

It falls to the state now to develop some common-sense guidelines that focus on the law's real intent: keeping children safe from predators.

[Last modified July 1, 2005, 01:24:21]