VOLUNTEERS:
July
27, 1998
Editor
The Katy Times
Dear Editor,
I am outraged that the school board
expressed mere “skepticism” over criminal background checks for volunteers in our public
schools. The trustees should have been furious
that the subject was even broached. Probably 98% of the regular volunteers in our schools
are mothers. I will be interested to see, as
this policy appears to be a done deal, how many mothers of KISD children turn out to be
felons! To insult these parents who are
offering freely their time and effort is unthinkable.
This policy reeks of government intervention into the privacy of individuals. There
have been incidents that appear to call for bonding of those parents who handle funds over
fifty dollars, but that would be a special case.
Since “volunteers” are supposed to be supervised while they cook, chaperone, copy and
collate, their contact with children can not be suspect.
Criminal background checks on
businessmen (not parents) who “volunteer” to be “mentors” (whatever that means) with our
children, is another matter.
If background checks are to be expanded, might I suggest that this group be the
target. Many times these businessmen do NOT
have children enrolled in our schools, and wearing a suit does not elevate them to
sainthood. According to a reply to my question
as a trustee when one of these “mentoring” programs was installed at Winborn Elementary, parents do NOT have the right to know business
“mentors'” names, anything about their criminal or personal backgrounds, their beliefs, or
their intentions. These business people, however, may spend hours and hours with one’s
child over a semester exerting plenty of influence. The intent of many of the businesses
supplying these “mentors,” especially those who are members of the Business Roundtable, is
to restructure the public schools so that they will turn out malleable workers at taxpayer
expense. For that reason, I think all parents have
a right to know who these “mentors” are and what they are saying to and doing with public
school children.
Perhaps an expanded Board Policy GKG
(Local) could also install a background check of our top seven volunteers.
I refer, of course, to school board trustees whose background is NEVER checked.
Things that might be helpful to know include:
Since these volunteers create policy, do they believe in and support capitalism and
the free enterprise system or do they believe in and support some other form of economic
system? Are they interested in doing right by
everyone’s children or just their own? Do they
have a penchant for prevarication when it comes time to run for office? Does their
employer belong to the Business Roundtable? Most importantly are there any felonies in
THEIR background?
The other part of this story that
bothers me is that no mention was made of who is going to pay for these “criminal
investigations.” Will it be the school
district (that is, the taxpayers), or will it be,
as I have heard, one of these inter-galactic corporations that needs to get its nose out
of the public schools’ business? What would be
the reason a business would offer to do these criminal background checks for free?
One has to wonder what the president
of the school board had in mind when she even allowed this item to take up space on the
agenda when it has the potential to run off any of the volunteers who care about their
individual rights and their privacy.
Mary McGarr
Permission is given to print all of this letter or none of it.