From Linda Conner Lambeck, CT Post:
A proposal to keep sex offenders and other criminals out of city schools by doing instant background checks and issuing photo IDs to all visitors could well be jettisoned before it is even tried.
Parents, members of the public and even school board members expressed concern that instead of keeping students safe, the system would become a deterrent to parent involvement for individuals who are undocumented, have pasts they want to put behind them or who worry about personal information being collected and stored by the school.“What I am hearing as a parent, this is going to be a big problem in our district,” Tammy Boyle, president of the District Parent Advisory Council, said. “I can guarantee you if this is anywhere pertaining to what it seems like … it is going to be a problem.”
Full story here.
I realize this is a security tool but I also feel it is an invasion of privacy. There are people who have rebuilt their lives and are now law-abiding citizens with families. This information will be available to untrained people and most likely could be talked about by the employees. Who will monitor the illegal use of this system by school employees? If you are worried about bad people coming into the schools, tighten up your entry procedures.
The BOE looking into the background of Charter School employees–not a mention of background checks of all BOE employees. Why?
The BBOE is required to conduct a background check on every one of their employees. The sex offender who was placed on the Ethics Commission by Mayor Finch and employed at Dunbar School was not a BBOE employee. He was an employee of Family Urban Schools of Excellence. The signed contract required they conduct background checks on every one of their employees. This was their error, not the BBOE.
This story was reported by Channel 12 News last night. As of this morning, there were 137 comments and I would estimate 75% were opposed to this ridiculous pilot.
I was at both the Community Engagement meeting and the Security Meeting where this pilot was discussed.
Approximately a year and a half ago, Vallas, Jorge Garcia, Shively Willingham, Captain Porter and Lieutenant Grech submitted a grant and this pilot was part of the grant application. Although this Fast Pass visitor background check system is in violation of at least five BBOE policies, they never presented this to the BBOE and never spoke with the elected Parent Advisory Council to gather their input or approval. They also reported they already purchased all the equipment to pilot this in Fairchild Wheeler before they spoke with the BBOE last week.
Tammy Boyle, the DPAC President was at the meetings and asked how can this be scheduled for a Community Forum BEFORE you engage the elected parent leaders? She agreed to place it on the October 29, 2014 agenda so parents could hear about it and weigh in before it went to the community at large. The Community Engagement Committee that is chaired by Hernan Illingworth and includes Joe Larcheveque and Kenneth Moales voted to bypass the PAC and take it directly to the community.
Dave Hennessey and Andre Baker were in the room vocalizing their support for bypassing the PAC also. Sauda reminded them the agenda had to come before the entire BBOE on Tuesday before the Community Forum flier could be distributed. Hernan, Moales, Joe, Andre and Dave supported that the committee could bypass the entire BBOE.
Here is the kicker, Andre Baker, a candidate for state rep actually had the nerve to state he recognized there are rules and bylaws but the common good of the Community Forum outweighs the rules and bylaws and “rules are made to be broken.”
I guess if we break a law Andre Baker votes to pass and we are approached by the BPD we should tell the officer State Representative Andre Baker told us “rules are made to be broken.”
Parents are not happy about the complete lack of respect these BBOE members have shown the PAC. The vast majority of those who visit our schools are parents and grandparents, not vendors.
The ACLU is being contacted tomorrow morning to ask for their assistance. This goes much deeper than just this Fast Pass visitor system. This just scratches the surface. The Bridgeport Police Department has been violating the constitutional rights of both students, especially high school students, and their parents and there are those willing to testify to it. A complaint has already been filed with the Department of Justice as well.