Anthony Foster, the brother of the man accused of shooting and wounding the principal and assistant principal of Inskip Elementary School, has come forward saying he was the anonymous person who sent the emails which warned educators and school board members about his brother. His warnings were not taken seriously and as a result two people suffered the consequences.

In a press conference Knox County School Superintendent, Dr. Jim McIntyre, said school officials performed three standard background checks on Foster which included a fingerprint check, a check with the state Department of Children’s Services and a drug test. Nothing out of the ordinary was found and therefore he was hired.

Brother Anthony Foster  said,  “reporters chasing down his brother’s background found more information about his violent history than did school investigators.” According to him the school “dropped the ball”.

As reporters worked to piece together this story they were able to uncover the shooters past. When one of his former supervisors was interviewed on a local television station, he said Foster threatened him with physical harm. This could have easily been caught had the school checked professional references.

A follow up commentary to this story posted by knocksnews.com scrutinizes the screening policies of this school system. One lesson learned from this incident can be summed up in a quote from that commentary, “If anything good comes out of this horrible incident I hope it will be that the human resources department of the Knox County school system will be retrained in how do to comprehensive background checks.”

For the complete article click here.

One can easily assume that even the most basic background check would catch a candidate who’s been arrested more than a dozen times in a span of 15 years.  The chances of that person being hired are almost non-existent. That’s not the case for Jodie Fleischer who even with a lengthy criminal history was able to get hired by a temp agency who later assigned her to work for The Department of Revenue.  According to Atlanta’s WSB-TV, Fleischer is accused of stealing a check for $27,000.

“The Department of Revenue has its own full-time criminal investigators. All employees are checked for criminal history and tax problems every year, but temporary employees may not receive the same scrutiny. Both agencies the Department of Revenue uses claim to do complete criminal background checks.”

Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham said, “She clearly shouldn’t have been working here in the first place. If everything had been forthright and accurate on the front end, and we’ll deal with that as we go through the relationship, not only with that temp agency involved in this, but all temp agencies.”

For the complete article click here.

Babysitting Site Provides Free Background Checks

A local Indiana TV station reports of two online babysitting services that have recently become popular among parents. One of them, Care.com, actually offers free background checks with subscription. One mother says she ended up going with Care.com because “they’d already background-checked everybody.”  The site not only connects sitters with parents but also those in need of senior care, tutors and dog walkers.

For the complete article click here.

Chattanooga Memorial Hospital No Longer Hiring Tobacco Users

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, starting February 1st anyone offered employment at the hospital will be tested for nicotine during their required drug test. Tobacco users will now have even more incentive to stop their unhealthy habit. “Even nicotine gum or the patch would make a potential employee ineligible.” This new policy change stems from the hospital’s commitment to health and not from the potential savings in health care costs. Even so, some are concerned about possibly discrimination issues. According to Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston School of Public Health, twenty-six states have laws prohibiting such a policy.

“The same rationale that would support not hiring smokers would also support not hiring people who are obese or people who have young children or people who don’t eat nutritious food or people who don’t exercise,” he said. “What it’s basically saying is the private behavior of people in their own homes is somehow relevant to their qualifications to work in a workplace.”

For the complete article click here.

Indictment Forces Company to Perform Background Checks

In an article posted by the Zanesville Times Recorder, one of the owners of a masonry company had been indicted for 10 counts of sex offenses including rape in 2009. The incident took place at the new Zanesville high school. Genaro Rosas was indicted in a Franklin County Common Pleas Court but court records show he was never served. He was finally arrested on May 26, and was indicted in July. As a result of concerned citizens this incident was brought to the attention of the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

“As soon as the district was made aware of this information, the administration immediately contacted Phoenix Masonry through its legal counsel and demanded that Mr. Rosas not be present at or around any school facilities where minor children frequent,” Martin said. “In addition, the board is requiring that Phoenix Masonry conduct background checks for all its employees and representatives who will be present on Zanesville school property.”

The company says they are “more than willing to comply with ZCS’s request to conduct background checks on employees working at the site and is considering making background checks for employees mandatory before hiring.”

For the complete article click here.

According to a blog posted on the De Moines Register website, a newly hired clerk in Iowa Capital noticed that none of the clerks were being given background checks. Very surprising considering that many of them work side-by-side with state lawmakers and even have special badges that allow them to bypass security checks and metal detectors at the doors of the Capital.

Chief clerk, Mark Brandsgard, makes the point that “most lawmakers hire people they already know to be their personal secretaries: a spouse, a constituent, a student or someone recommended by another lawmaker.” This is fine and dandy but can you really trust someone based solely on character or who they know? It’s a topic of concern especially because these people have access to confidential legislative business.

According to Brandsgard the system they have going now is appropriately balanced and if they were ever to require background checks it would get to be “ridiculous”.  I agree that it could become somewhat ridiculous if you don’t know the first thing about running a background check but how about leaving it to a company that does.  Just a thought.

Here is an eclectic bunch of news stories that demonstrates the importance of background checks done right.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Botches Officers Background Check

The Charlotte Observer reports that a third woman has come forward to accuse officer Marcus Jackson of sexual assault. In the article the police department admitted that they had “botched a background check that should have prevented Jackson from becoming an officer.”

Police Chief Rodney Monroe didn’t explain how the police department’s background checks missed a 2005 domestic violence incident which resulted in a restraining order. According to the Police Chief, Jackson’s background check was “not very efficient work.”

For the complete article click here.

Nonprofit Organization Founded To Protect Consumers Through Background Checks

When you let home service and repair workers into your home you don’t question their criminal background, you just let them in. That’s what Sue Weaver did when she had her air ducts cleaned. Little did she know that one of the two men, a convicted sex offender who was on parole, would return six months later to rape and murder her and then set fire to her house and body in an attempt to destroy evidence.

As a result of those horrific events back in 2001, a non-profit organization was created with a mission to make “background checks mandatory for home service and repair workers and to educate consumers about the risks such workers may pose.”  Sue Weaver C.A.U.S.E, an acronym for Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment, was founded by Sue’s sister Lucia Bone as a way to heal after the loss of her sister.  The aim for C.A.U.S.E  is to push home service businesses to conduct complete background checks on all their workers.

This initiative is a great endeavor that should be taken seriously by these businesses. It not only protects their valued customers but it also protects them from possible negligence lawsuits.

For the complete article click here.

In a past posting we found out that in order to own part of an NBA team you must first receive a thorough background check. What about NBA players? This question was raised after a recent incident involving two Washington Wizard players who pulled guns on each other in the team locker. Technically they’re employees of an organization and should be properly vetted before allowed to “work”. One would think that an organization as large as the NBA would make every effort to avoid these type of incidences, especially considering how much money is invested in each player.

Dr. Lou Marciani, director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at The University of Southern Mississippi, suggests the NBA “take the helm of protecting their facilities by following the same screening procedures for all persons–players and fans alike” as well as conducting background checks.

For the complete article click here.

The Washington Examiner reports that a dozen House delegates sponsored a bill that would require mail-order bride agencies to conduct background checks on prospective clients. According to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, “overseas brides weren’t getting all the information about their prospective suitors as required under federal law.”

“The federal International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 requires marriage agencies to disclose to potential brides the criminal record of interested clients before they communicate or meet.”

Although this Act serves as a way to protect would-be foreign brides it does not guarantee that each suitor has been fully checked out. One owner of a mail-order bride agency says the law only requires clients to self-report their criminal histories. This loophole makes the system vulnerable to abuse and potential harm to foreign brides who may be matched with someone with a criminal history.

I could certainly see how these agencies can potentially become liable of wrongdoing if one of their clients commits an offense against his mail-order bride. These agencies might as well get ahead of the game by partnering with a reliable background screening company.

For the full article click here.

By now most people are aware of Diploma Mills and what they do. As unethical as they are, they still happen. One wonders why authorities don’t just step in and end them. In an article posted by Wired Magazine, physics professor George Collin, from the University of Illinois, decides he wants to put an end to these bogus institutions. It all began in 2002 when a pop-up ad for college degrees came up on his computer screen. This was the start of an international mission that stretched from Liberia to the State of Washington to dealings with the Secret Service.

This article was a really great read and helps to fully understand the inner workings of how Diploma Mills still exist. Having the resources and knowledge to detect a bogus diploma are not qualities most employers have. It’s good to be aware that they exist and should take precautions against them by choosing an employment screening company that is competent.

For the complete article click here.

When parents take their children to get pictures taken with Santa Clause they never imagine that Santa could have prior sex convictions. Think again. A man working as a Santa Claus at Memorial Mall in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was recently fired after his superiors learned of his prior convictions which did not turn up on his initial background check.

According to the Sheboygan Press, 33-year-old Hal Specht had changed his name from Hal Barts in October 2008. He claimed on his application that he had no felony convictions and the background check by a third-party company reaffirmed that. Since Specht’s sex-related offenses were misdemeanors he was not required to register as a sex offender.

“Obviously I would not have hired him if I had known this,” said franchise owner Ted Kauffmann. “We did everything properly, and obviously the company that we use for background checks didn’t come up with what they should have.”

It’s hard to believe that a company running a proper background check could have failed to look into several gaps of an employees history. There are a variety of reasons why a background check would fail to catch offenses but it’s up to the employment screening company to consider every piece of the puzzle before putting someone in the clear.

For the complete article click here.

A recent article in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports that the U.S. Senate is calling for new employment screening legislation in the child-care industry. The bill calls for comprehensive background examinations for anyone who regularly works as a child-care provider for pay. The background check would include FBI fingerprint checks, criminal histories, abuse and neglect registries, and sex offender registry checks. This new federal bill would require these checks be completed whenever someone is hired and every five years thereafter.

The aim of this new legislation is to standardize background requirements around the country. Currently only 10 states require background checks for providers, Wisconsin not being one of them. This past June the states $350 million-a-year subsidized child care program was exposed with widespread fraud and other problems. It’s easy to see why employment screenings are so crucial. Not only does it allow for fraud but it also potentially puts children in harms way.

“In the interest of children’s protection, it seems that we would want the most comprehensive background checks available,” says U.S. Senator Herb Kohl.

For the complete article click here.