BoS urges state to prevent schools from hiring offenders
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors agreed on Oct. 11 to urge the state to strengthen its policies on how the arrests of public school employees are reported.
This action comes in the wake of the discovery of a convicted sexual predator working as a counselor at Glasgow Middle School.
County and school officials were “shocked the notification of his arrest had been sent from another county to a non-working FCPS email address months before, with no follow-up,” Board of Supervisors Chair Jeffrey McKay said. “Once notified, FCPS immediately put the individual on leave, followed by a quick termination. But it is clear this state-led process is broken.”
The counselor, Darren Thornton, had been arrested and convicted of soliciting a minor for sex by the Chesterfield County Police Department in 2020. Law enforcement sent an email to a nonworking address for the former Fairfax County School superintendent but never followed up to ensure it was received. FCPS didn’t learn about the arrest until Thornton was arrested again in June 2022.
Related story: FCPS to improve employee oversight
One step the BoS plans to take is to urge Virginia to enroll in Rap Back, the FBI’s system to alert agencies when someone employed in the public trust enters the criminal justice system. This program is expected to go live in Virginia in 2025.
The BoS also plans to support legislation in the 2023 General Assembly to modernize and ensure accountability in the current system.
“There are many things the state can do without waiting on the General Assembly, and I encourage the governor to take quick action,” McKay said. “It is unconscionable in this era of extraordinary technological achievements that two bounced emails could ultimately endanger the lives of our children. We must do better.”
The BoS sent a letter to Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera to take immediate action to improve the process for sharing information about the arrest and/or conviction of persons between jurisdictions within the state and across state lines.
The Glasgow situation “has cast a bright light on the gaps and limitations of the current background check system, as well as current practices,” the letter states.
Related story: FCPS to investigate how a convicted sex offender was hired at Glasgow
Supervisors recently solicited recommendations on immediate actions at a meeting with the General Assembly delegation, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid, School Board Chair Rachna Sizemore Heizer, School Board legislative liaison Karen Corbett Sanders, and representatives from the Fairfax County Police Department and the Virginia State Police.
One step the BoS urged the governor to take is accelerating Virginia’s participation in Rap Back. Meanwhile, “even providing guidance to school divisions, law enforcement agencies, and the criminal justice system as a whole of steps to take on a voluntary basis could help close some critical gaps immediately,” the letter to Youngkin and Guidera states.
For example, Reid proactively reached out to every law enforcement agency in the commonwealth, with a return receipt required, providing her contact information to ensure they have it when needed.
Reid is also undertaking improvements in the school system’s employee hiring and monitoring processes after a study found significant system problems.
Even requiring a certified letter, that has to be signed by the recipient, would be helpful,
The BoS letter calls for the state to provide all law enforcement agencies with the correct contact information to use and procedures to follow for reporting criminal activity by school employees to school divisions. And, it says, the state should ensure the information is received and documented properly and in a timely fashion.
This is all baffling why there isn’t a straight forward solution to this.
Everyone who works with kids or any vulnerable population should get fingerprinted as part of their certification or employment onboarding. Those fingerprints go into a state or national db. This would be no different than people who have any kind of clearances or any number of different kind of background checks for their jobs. The onboarding organization is required to maintain an accurate record of at least 2 contacts that are verified annually that the contact information is still accurate.
When sex related offenses are made, fingerprints of the suspect are taken anyways. It should be a NATIONAL law that law enforcement submits the prints to the db. If any matches found, the org contacts are automatically notified – not by a human who can fat-finger stuff, but by the system doing the match. The police jurisdiction performing the search as well as the jurisdiction where the employee works could also be notified.
This kind of system would solve the issue for schools and licensed daycares. If you include licensed nursing homes, etc, you could cover more vulnerable populations. No more issues of jurisdictional boundaries. someone doing something in california but working in va would still have their employer notified.
This needs to have congressional attention. Enough of the half measures at local and state. This is one of the few things that should be able to get bipartisan support, even in an election year.
I outlined broadly this on twitter: https://twitter.com/technicallyjlo/status/1563247022349893633?s=46&t=3ikOXpk1yz338M88NAFq0w
I’d rather my child be taught by a sex offender than a woke teacher. The sex offender may pick off one or two kids. The woke teacher infects every child.
Sorry, i haven’t read the article yet …. Just wonder whose kid you’d choose. You, Sir have a horrible attitude
Whoa, this is a family blog. Take your fantasies elsewhere gramps
“May pick off one or 2 kids” speaks for itself, doesn’t it….
Sorry, i haven’t read the article yet …. Just wonder whose kid you’d choose. You, Sir have a horrible attitude
People who say things like this are exactly the kind of people who end up having certain skeletons come out of their closets in 20 years. Hope your kids have somewhere to report you at!