Suburban schools check backgrounds of parents, volunteers

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Schools are teaching that "you can't judge a book by its cover" as districts increasingly check the backgrounds of those who work with students, including volunteers and even parents.

Proponents say checks are necessary to protect children. Opponents say checks could deter potential volunteers worried past indiscretions could make them embarrassed.

Neither Maggie Ammons, 66, nor Ruth Westhues, 76, minded having a criminal check to volunteer at Fairmount Elementary School in the Francis Howell School District, in suburban St. Louis.

"I love the kids," Ammons said.

The district has checked the backgrounds of all volunteers for the past three or four years, using the free services of the Missouri Department of Social Services and the state Highway Patrol, personnel director Lou Ann Platt said.

In St. Charles County's Orchard Farm School District, the policy is to check the backgrounds of people who might be left alone with a child.

"You don't want to close a school down to where it's not a community center," said Dan Dozier, district assistant superintendent. "A school should be a public place."

Three security levels

Project Appleseed, a national, St. Louis-based school reform movement, recommends that districts establish three security levels for volunteers, group president Kevin Walker said. Security checks would range from a principal and staff's approval to a criminal background check.

"We live in an age in which we just can't allow strangers to be around children," Walker said. "What do we do?"

Most districts surveyed by the St. Louis-Post Dispatch conduct background checks only on volunteers who will work alone with a single student or a small group. No school administrators reported rejecting any volunteers because of the checks, and none recalled instances of volunteers abusing students.

The suburban Parkway School District checks backgrounds of volunteers who are not parents if they are in a classroom for 10 hours or more in a year, said spokeswoman Diana Stewart.

In the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, schools have checked volunteers' backgrounds since 1990. All volunteers and employees go through background checks every other year, said Al Winkelmann, associate superintendent for elementary schools. New volunteers and employees are screened in off years.

Schools pick up cost

Parishes and schools pick up the $5 cost for the checks, and if a volunteer has moved to Missouri within the previous year or so, other states are called for information.

Free checks provided by the state search open criminal records and registered sex offender lists and turn up any complaints of child abuse or neglect, said Capt. Jim McGrail.

A person's conviction of a crime might not show up if the person received a suspended sentence and successfully completed probation, McGrail said. Records are also cleared if charges are dropped after an arrest.

For $14, the Missouri Highway Patrol does fingerprint checks, which only involving Missouri records, McGrail said. For $36, the FBI can provide a nationwide check.