A policy of performing background checks is useless unless it’s followed

Colleges large and small continue to be rocked by news of former and current coaches and teachers molesting the children under their care. Penn State University, Syracuse University, and now The Citadel in Charleston all have made headlines in recent weeks when charges were brought against their former or current staff members. Last week the case against former high school tennis coach Louis “Skip” ReVille of Charleston, charged initially with molesting several boys, was widened to The Citadel, where ReVille supervised boys in a summer tennis camp. One former camper has accused ReVille of showing boys pornography and performing sexual acts in their presence.

Perhaps the scariest announcement came from the Diocese of Charleston, which hired ReVille in 2008 to coach tennis at Bishop England High School. The diocese recently admitted that although they’ve had a policy in place since 2003 requiring all employees and volunteers who work with children to undergo a background check, no such check was performed on ReVille before he was hired.

The story makes clear the point that it is not enough to merely have a background check policy in place, you must follow through and perform said background checks, including a look at someone’s criminal record and searching for them in sex offender registries — every single time, no exceptions. A policy is just a useless piece of paper if it isn’t followed. And there is much more than legal trouble at stake.

http://www.verifyprotect.com/

Follow VerifyProtect.com on Twitter!

California latest state to say pre-employment credit checks not OK in most cases

California has become the latest state to ban credit checks during the pre-employment screening process, a move that proponents say will help those down on their luck get jobs based on their merit without having to account for their recent hard times.

Exceptions to the new rule, put forth in Assembly Bill 22 by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, include jobs in the state’s Department of Justice and law enforcement, managerial positions, and those that control $10,000 or more during their workday. Also, employers can still conduct background checks of prospective hires.

California joins Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon and Washington as states that have imposed pre-employment credit check bans. Similar legislation has been proposed or is pending in 28 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Several business groups are opposed to the new law, saying it makes employers vulnerable to theft and fraud from their own employees. But those in favor of the law say credit checks unfairly cull candidates who are fully qualified but whose credit scores were damaged by layoffs, foreclosures and other financial hardships.

http://www.verifyprotect.com/