25 Investigates continues to document child sexual abuse in Massachusetts public schools. We’ve reported on loopholes that allow predators to fall through the cracks.
As a bevy of bills to better protect kids in schools continues to fail on Beacon Hill, we found one Massachusetts district taking matters into their own hands.
“It was sort of baffling that there’s a hole this big in the side of the boat. But we’ve spoken to many, many, many people about this and it is absolutely a school bus sized hole,’ said Kyle Johnson, school committee chairperson of the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District during a school committee meeting on November 14th.
That ‘school bus-sized hole’ is a gap in background checks for teachers and other school staffers, according to Johnson.
During that meeting, the school committee cast a vote in effort to close that gap.
“What we are doing is we are adding an additional check to our existing background policy process,” Johnson said.
Prior to the change, the district did a standard Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information or CORI check, which could detect a criminal record if a case went to court. That CORI check is then repeated every three years as a standard condition of employment. Fingerprints checks would access potential crimes outside Massachusetts.
Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District is now adding another layer.
“So, in collaboration with the heads of all our collective bargaining groups, we are adding a check of the DCF [Department of Children and Families] database for the employee,” Johnson said during the meeting.
That check of the DCF database would potentially identify sustained allegations of abuse investigated by the agency that, in some cases, didn’t make it to criminal court. That can happen for many reasons. Researchers and legal advocates have noted that often cases don’t move forward if families fear re-traumatizing a victim.
“This is really in my mind, closing a hole in the process where are having these very robust background checks and we are missing out on checking with the department of record as it relates to crimes against children in the Commonwealth,” Johnson told the school committee members.
Advocates and lawmakers have been working for at least a decade to enhance background checks for school staffers and standardizing them statewide.
Those efforts died again this session in the Massachusetts legislature.
“A set of questions would be required to be asked of that person,” said Jetta Bernier, head of Massachusetts-based Enough Abuse.
Bernier and her organization work with districts across the country. She says in Massachusetts, the series of questions that they want mandated would be more probing.
“Have you ever been investigated for any kind of sexual misconduct or abuse and found, in fact, guilty? Have you ever surrendered your license in lieu of an investigation? Have has your license ever been temporarily or permanently revoked because of this,” Bernier says.
She says current state policy in Massachusetts is to suggest districts ask these questions.
“That’s not strong enough,” Bernier says.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary education says it urges all school districts to follow careful hiring practices such as those outlined here: https://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/advisory/2020-0914reporting-misconduct.html.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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