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Schools rush to screen vendors

The Lunsford Act requires contract workers who enter school grounds to be checked by fingerprinting.

By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published August 8, 2005

Tampa Bay area school districts are scrambling to begin running criminal background checks on tens of thousands of contract workers as school officials wonder how they will keep track of them all.

Sparked by the killing of third-grader Jessica Lunsford of Citrus County, Florida's 67 school districts face a Sept. 1 deadline to start screening and fingerprinting any vendor and their subcontractors who go on a campus while students are present.

The list could include construction workers, referees, delivery drivers, even disc jockeys who play at school dances and those who take class photos and sell class rings at lunch time.

Figures vary wildly from district to district on how many contract workers - many with indirect ties to the district - may need to be screened. And no one can say for sure what the long-term costs will be to school districts.

But calls are pouring in daily from vendors confused over whether their employees must submit to the screenings, even if they only deliver milk to the cafeteria or drop off mail at the front office. Some districts, like Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco, say they may exempt such vendors as long as they make their deliveries before or after school.

"The logistics of this are nightmarish," said James Hamilton, Hillsborough schools' chief of staff.

Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, who proposed the screening of contract workers to keep sex offenders off school grounds, said she plans to clarify the law to help districts struggling to decide who to screen but expects every district to comply.

"I know every superintendent has children safety as their best interest at heart," she said. "But this law is a no-brainer. Stop freakin' panicking and use Common Sense 101."

Florida law already requires school districts to fingerprint all employees every five years. Districts also must check volunteer coaches and chaperones who have unsupervised contact with students against a state database of sex offenders.

The Lunsford Act, signed by Gov. Jeb Bush in May, now requires "noninstructional school district employees or contractual personnel who are permitted access on school grounds while students are present" to meet screening requirements that include fingerprint checks against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI databases. Those checks cost $61.

Those with crimes of "moral turpitude" will not be allowed on school campuses.

The act is named after Jessica Lunsford. Authorities say she was abducted, sexually assaulted and killed by John Couey. A convicted sex offender, Couey worked as a mason's helper at Homosassa Elementary, Jessica's school. Officials say the two never met on school grounds.

As the deadline looms, Tampa Bay area school districts are working around the clock, talking with their lawyers to hammer out screening plans.

In Pinellas, about 20,000 companies with business ties to the school district have been sent letters about the new screening requirements. Three more fingerprinting machines have been ordered and three additional staff members have been hired.

In Hillsborough, school officials could not estimate how many vendors may be asked to screen their employees but they said the number appears substantial. This year, an unusually high number of school sites are undergoing renovation, and officials are struggling to figure out how to track workers in a profession that has high turnover because it relies on subcontractors and day laborers.

Pasco schools are already fingerprinting contract workers, identifying some 30,000 vendors. As with other school districts, it's unclear how many actual employees must submit to the screenings.

Already, a contract employee who puts on school plays and a photographer were turned away, one for repeated drug possession charges and the other for a grand theft conviction. So far, no one convicted of a sex crime has turned up.

In Hernando, creating a policy has taken on an added sense of urgency after three sex offenders who were mistakenly sent by a hiring agency showed up at a school construction site last week. The workers were stopped after they were recognized from photos of sex offenders that the Hernando County Sheriff's Office sends out to schools. They were escorted out without incident before students and parents arrived for a rally the next day.

In addition to fingerprinting contract employees, Hernando schools will use a $38,000 computer software package to screen every visitor against a national database of sex crimes.

The Citrus school district, however, may not start fingerprinting until after Sept. 1.

The School Board may hold a public hearing to discuss the district's plan, but typically boards must give the public a 30-day notice before a final vote on a policy. District officials are seeking guidance from Argenziano and Rep. Charles Dean, R-Inverness.

The Florida School Boards Association wants lawmakers to reconsider the FDLE and FBI fingerprint checks. Instead, they want districts to be allowed to use a free statewide database of sexual predators to screen contract workers.

But Argenziano said she won't budge. She said the fingerprint check is necessary to intercept sex offenders with convictions in other states.

"Is the bigger fear that a contractor will ask for more money or is the bigger fear that a child will be molested by a pedophile or some other dirt bag because I didn't bother to check him properly before he came on campus?" she asked.

And while the Lunsford Act does not give school districts extra money, the screening costs should not be hard for districts to absorb, Argenziano said. "To those school systems complaining about the financial impact," she said, "I say, "Shame on you."'

Tampa Bay area school districts are asking vendors, even those with contracts in multiple counties, to pay the $61 fingerprinting fee for each employee in every county. But even if vendors agree to assume the costs, district officials acknowledge the cost will likely be forced back on the district.

"It's one of those unfunded mandates," said Barry Crowley, safety and security coordinator of Hernando schools. "We'll end up paying for it in the end."

Some school officials, while supporting the intent of the law, still question whether it in fact closes the loopholes that would allow a sex offender on campus. "There has to be some realistic expectations," said Kendra Goodman, personnel director of Pasco schools. "There is no guarantee that tomorrow someone will not be going off the deep end."

In Citrus, where the death of Jessica cast a pall on a tight-knit school community, district officials agree that the law needs fine-tuning but they say it's a step in the right direction.

"I don't know how ... we're going to fingerprint everybody because we only have one machine and one person to do it," Citrus County School Board Attorney Richard "Spike" Fitzpatrick recently told teachers. "But we'll try our best to protect our students."

--Eddy Ramirez can be reached at eramirez@sptimes.com or 352 860-7305.

[Last modified August 8, 2005, 02:45:22]