There have been an alarming number of stories in the news lately about registered sex offenders or people who have criminal records for crimes involving children who are found coaching little leagues.
I talked this over with a coworker. What consequences are in place to keep a registered sex offender from applying to be a coach? None. In the event that a sports organization actually runs a background check, discovers that a prospective employee has a criminal record (which was undisclosed on an application) and doesn’t hire the person, there is nothing stopping that person from just going down the road and applying for another coaching position, possibly in an organization which doesn’t perform background checks.
In most areas, it is illegal for a sex offender to live within a certain vicinity of a school or park, and it’s actually a felony. Sex offenders must also make sure they register in the state or area of residence, or they face legal consequences. So, how about imposing legal consequences on a registered sex offender who knowingly applies for a job involving children and does not disclose their past?
In Greensboro, North Carolina, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department recently adopted a formal background check process, but it’s only on randomly selected coaches. The organization cited the cost (about $14.00 per person) as the reason they cannot run background checks on all of their coaches. Sadly, all it will take is one coach who slips through the cracks and harms a child to make this organization realize that it’s worth the price to background check everyone. In the unfortunate event that something does go wrong, the Parks and Recreation Department will probably pay a lot more money than if they had conducted background checks on all of their employees.
However, placing legal consequences on sex offenders who knowingly apply for youth coaching jobs just might be part of the answer in helping protect our children.
What do you think?
Tags: coach background check, coaches background screening, registered sex offender, youth coach
It is sad but true that most people will not face the consequences of their actions unless their are CONSEQUENCES. This is brilliant.
I think it would be hard to enforce such a thing. But it is a good idea.
It’s a nice idea, but very lofty. Local police departments have enough trouble trying to get sex offenders to even register. Although, if I were a parent, I wouldn’t mind an extra $5 charge for my kid to register for a team if I knew the coaches were being screened. Why can’t these teams pass the cost on to the parents? It’s not free to sign up, what is a few more dollars for a piece of mind?
I don’t think this is a bad idea really… however, where do you end up drawing the line? Say someone has a criminal past involving theft, should it be a crime for them to apply at a bank?
I disagree with Anonymous who said…”where do you end up drawing the line?” Well, you must use your best judgment. Not everyone who has a “bad” past is a criminal today. Plus, a sex offender is far worse than a thief, that’s my opinion. So, you can hire someone as long as you feel the person is over it…if it happened 10 years ago, then you can choose to hire or not. But, to me the exception would be a sex offender, there’s nothing worse than a person hurting another person.
Attempting to do something is normally treated the same as doing it; why not in this case? I agree, applying to work around kids as a sex offender should be a crime in and of itself!
I’m sorry, but to me this smacks of thought crimes and minority reports.
Granted, we charge and convict people for conspiring and plotting, and you could make an argument for that in this case so long as there was evidence that a person absolutely intended to commit a crime…but I’m just not sure I can get behind this idea yet. Nonetheless, an interesting topic for discussion.