Derry school district changes background check policy
By Eric Parryeparry@eagletribune.com
DERRY — Anyone who volunteers in Derry schools on a regular basis will have to undergo a complete background check after a convicted sex offender was found to be volunteering at Ernest P. Barka Elementary School for the past four years.
Stephen Cleveland, 69, of 74 Chester Road was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1984 and registered with police in November. But it wasn't until last week that Cleveland was told to stay out of the school.
People convicted of sex crimes prior to Jan. 1, 1988, are not required to register, according to New Hampshire law. But since Cleveland's prison sentence went beyond 1988, police learned in November that he is required to register quarterly. He recently became part of the state's public sex offender registry.
Derry Superintendent Mary Ellen Hannon said she doesn't believe any student was ever in danger.
Whenever Cleveland was in the school, he was working with a group of other volunteers and not alone with any children, according to Barka principal Dan LaFleur. He was involved with fundraising for student programs and helped sell popcorn in the cafeteria once a week, according to LaFleur.
After school officials were alerted to Cleveland's background, LaFleur sent a letter to parents, dated Jan. 15, alerting them to the risk, but did not identify Cleveland.
The school district asked Derry police to investigate. After reviewing Cleveland's conduct and the letter of the law, police determined no laws were broken. Sex offenders are not prohibited from working in schools, but they aren't allowed to guide or coach students or have direct contact with them under a certain set of circumstances, according to Capt. Vernon Thomas.
But the incident prompted district officials to change policy and screen every volunteer who enters a school.
"If they're in the building on a regular basis, we are going to start fingerprinting immediately," Hannon said of the district's 700 volunteers.
Under the school district's old policy, anyone who worked directly with children was fingerprinted. But that level of screening didn't apply to volunteers who did other jobs in the school such as photocopying tests and homework assignments.
"They were not really working with children without other adults around," Hannon said.
But some people say the school needs to do even more to protect their children.
Now that Cleveland has been seen around school, children will associate him with being a nice person if they see him in a park or around town unless parents educate their children to the danger, according to Debbie Savoia, a mother and victim rights advocate from North Andover, Mass.
"For the school to say none of these kids are in danger is wrong," Savoia said.
Massachusetts state law requires schools to conduct background checks on all volunteers who may have direct and unmonitored contact with children. The law allows each school district to determine which volunteers they wish to check.
Some other New Hampshire school districts also have a policy of only doing complete background checks on volunteers who work with students unsupervised.
Timberlane Regional School District Superintendent Richard La Salle said volunteers are only fingerprinted if they work directly with students.
A mother or volunteer helping with clerical work in a classroom may not have to go through a complete background check, he said.
But the Salem School District fingerprints all of its volunteers. Superintendent Michael Delahanty said he was familiar with the Derry incident and "the same thing could happen to any school district."
Hannon said the incident was a rare thing for her school district. Typically, they have more issues with people seeking jobs with the school district than they do with volunteers, she said.
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http://schoolvolunteerbackgroundcheck.blogspot.com/
Every school district should be required by law to check the backgrounds of all people that have access to students through the school. If you don't think so, just click on the link below and see what happened in Liberal, Kansas.
As you will see through public documents, that a man with a history of molestation in Borger, Texas, moved to Liberal Kansas became a volunteer in Liberal for the school district and had access to students for over 10 years. When allegations surfaced in Liberal, officials from the school district defended the man at his criminal trial, even knowing that he had an admission to molestation in 1989. It is amazing that this is the attitude of school officials.
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