I spoke with the people who are organizing the after school program for which I’ll be teaching. It turns out that in order to be a teacher I’ll have to be finger printed and get a background check. This is done to prevent predators or dangerous people from working closely with the kids. For some reason this process makes me nervous even though I know I’ll pass with flying colors. So I’m going to poke around in my brain a little to see if I can locate the source of this nervousness.
As of right now I am not in any kind of law enforcement database that I know of. I’ve never been fingerprinted for anything. This means that if my prints turned up as part of an investigation, the prints would remain unidentified because the investigators have no way to tie those prints to me. The thought of putting my prints in a database makes me antsy. What if somehow it leads to me being falsely accused of something? I’m not even going to pretend that fear is rational. I have never been a part of a criminal investigation and hopefully never will be. Not only that, but I seriously doubt that the school district database is connected to any criminal database.
Then there is the fear of mistaken identity. I know that my background is clean. The only run-in I’ve had with The Law is when I got a citation for being an idiot and causing a traffic accident. That was 12 years ago. But there is a chance that someone else with my name has a much more colorful past. This actually happened to my brother. He was nearly arrested because he has the same first and last name as a person for whom a warrant had been issued. Since that first time he has had similar trouble several times. At least now he knows to alert people to the existence of that other guy with his name. I know there is another Sandra Taylor in the area. She shops at the same pharmacy that I do and doesn’t have insurance. Fortunately her last name has an “o” rather than an “e” and now the pharmacists know me on sight. (It just now occurs to me to wonder if my insurance ever got billed for her prescriptions, since several times I was almost charged her uninsured full price for mine.) But what if this same kind of mix-up happens during the background check? Logically I know it would get sorted out. The worst that could happen is that I’m told I can’t teach the class.
This kind of fingerprinting and background check is done all the time. My brother and his wife have gone through it to be foster parents. Likely anyone who has adopted has gone through it. Many companies require background checks. But I’ve spent 34 years flying under the radar and it makes me nervous to pop up where I can be seen.
Weird. I probably just need to get it over with.
When I was applying for my teaching license, I had to be fingerprinted. It was humorous (from my perspective) to watch the officer deal with my left hand as I am missing 2.5 fingers. He had to consult a few people before we got started – he must have been new!
I was disappointed to discover that of the remaining fingers, only one counted for fingerprinting purposes. The others are too incomplete to count as “true” fingers. So, if there’s ever a crime committed by a six-fingered woman, I’ll be waiting for Inigo Montoya’s sister to track me down! =)
I had to go through it to legally adopt my sister.
She could have kept living with me forever in a guardianship state without any real paperwork, but it was legally easier to just adopt her. That was a hassle and a half, too. Because now CPS can just drop by whenever the feel like, nose around my bills, job, etc. And *do*. Hell, I had one woman all but say that I was a bad person for not turning her over to The System. Bleh. Done ranting. But yeah, being In The System isn’t the greatest feeling ever. 😛
This means you watch too much CSI.
“I’m not even going to pretend that fear is rational.”
With the way the US is going right now, it seems very much like a rational fear. 🙁
Probably.
Wait. She wanted another child in the system? That seems moronic when there was a capable adult willing to take responsibility.
Picturing this makes me snicker. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, but you see, I was 21 and single. And a man. Obviously I was incapable of taking care of her, and a foster mother would do a better job.
(She also hinted that she thought I was obviously only taking her in so that I could molest her.)
Now that is just dumb of her. She should be seeking to build a positive relationship with you so that she can observe more closely how you treat your sister. And so that she can help you if you honestly need assistance. Instead she alienated you and you will shut her out as much as you can. She just isn’t thinking sneaky enough. I routinely get far more information by being sweet and polite than I do by being confrontational.
Your mouth to God’s Ears, honey.
Most places, between insane rules and insane caseloads, the good, caring folks get driven out of CPS, welfare and the like. What gets left are the drones, the bitter, and the folks who *enjoy* abusing their power.
In CPS, there’s also a positive *incentive* to think the worst, spurred by what happens to caseworkers who *do* miss abuse.
While very sad to think about, this is one of the best, and most accurate portrayals of just why CPS is one of the bleaker jobs, and why case workers (who you would HOPE would actually be more caring, and more thoughtful individuals) have a reputation of being so disagreeable.
Well, the rules don’t help. I’ve got more experience with the welfare/food stamps side of things, but in essence most rules there are aimed at “preventing cheats” rather than helping. In fact there was a study in the 80s or 90s that determined itd actually be *cheaper* to tolerate a fair bit of cheating and dump the intrusive and demeaning checking into people’s lives.
With CPS, there are similar levels of cross purpose tasking.
And, of course, heaven forbid that you be a “non-standard” parent.
I know folks who moved to a different state because their inlaws kept siccing CPS on them and CPS in that state was quite happy for an excuse to dig. You see, it was the Deep South and the couple were Wiccans.