Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Schools enforce law on ID checks

But Katrina causes a slowdown in in the system on the day that officials begin complying with the Jessica Lunsford Act.

By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published September 2, 2005

INVERNESS - Citrus school officials rushed Thursday to screen dozens of referees, delivery drivers and other school vendors who must clear background checks before they can set foot on a football field or take a single portrait inside a school.

Thursday, which was Sept. 1, was the day schools were required to begin complying with the Jessica Lunsford Act, which requires schools to make certain that every worker who turned up to make repairs or deliver milk and bread had cleared a state and federal background check.

By late Thursday, the Citrus school district had turned away three workers whose criminal histories showed they had committed "crimes of moral turpitude." None of those involved child abuse, said Steve Richardson, the district's personnel director.

With hundreds more yet to be screened, the district learned Thursday about a glitch in the system: a line used by state authorities to transmit fingerprints to the FBI was wiped out during the hurricane. The line ran through New Orleans.

"There's a massive slowdown," said Teresa Royal, the district's compliance officer.

School officials were waiting for results for about 30 people, including a worker who needed to make repairs at Homosassa Elementary School. For that reasons, school officials did not allow the worker on campus.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials say they have fixed the glitch, but they warn that results may take two days.

"We asked them to stop submitting to us because our system was getting full and we didn't want to risk losing anything," said Martha Wright, chief of user services with FDLE.

The slowdown didn't stop the district from screening vendors. With one fingerprint machine, some workers became irate about the wait. Many wondered how soon they could return to work on schools. Still, most were understanding.

"I have kids," said William Bergeron, who runs a roofing company. "You need to do what you need to do."

Meanwhile, at schools, staff members were ever more vigilant about people who showed up on campus. Each school has received a list of school vendors who have cleared the background checks.

At Homosassa Elementary, one worker was turned away because his name was not on the list. The man had been fingerprinted but school officials were still awaiting the results, principal Regina Allegretta said.

"If there is any doubt at all," she said, "we err on the side of the children."

Other schools took the same approach, including Hernando Elementary, where a reporter was told she needed to clear a check on the state's sexual offender registry.

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 02:15:35]