Bernie writes: Prints is the history ... of the entire school fingerprinting episode
in Maine. It covers everything from the law's inception way back in 1995 up through
Governor's Baldacci's turncoat veto of the Legislature's third bill in four years
attempting to change the law. It also includes the missing data that we all sought, except
it is not from Maine, but from Missouri, a state with a similar law but no restriction on
release of the results of their background checks. The folks in the Legal Office of
Missouri's Education Department were gracious enough to review all their results from
1998-2003 for me and answer the crucial question we kept asking: how many school employees
were discovered to have prior out-of-state convictions for sexual abuse of a child? I won't
spoil it for you, but it's a shocker; it's in the Epilogue, fittingly.Download a free copy here as a PDF file (1.9 megabytes) |
Gov. Angus King and DOE Commissioner J. Duke Albanese | Louis Brandeis |
Margaret Mead |
The truth of the matter: facts to defeat the pro-fingerprinting rhetoric
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Write or call your legislators.and let them know what you think. And if you like what THEY say, ask if you can post it to this site.And don't forget to write to the papers
During session call
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And don't forget Governor BaldacciWrite: |
WE HAVE PLACED A MAJOR AD IN THE SUNDAY TELEGRAMSIGNED BY 42 EDUCATORS REFUSING TO SUBMIT TO FINGERPRINTINGIf you have discovered, after serious deliberation, that you cannot submit to being fingerprinted and must therefore either resign, retire or force your employer school to fire you, and if you would like to add your name to the add, we are we will continue to update the signature list on the web page. To be added, contact: 2) where you currently work, 3) the number of years you have worked in education, 4) and a clear statement of your commitment to idea in the ad. Please do not do this lightly, and feel no pressure from any of us. This is each individual's private decision, both practically and philosophically. It is, after all, individual rights that this whole struggle is about. If you are not sure, or if this is not your position but you know of others who might welcome this chance at a forum for their belief, please pass word along. |
The image of abuse in the schools presented by the Commissioner (though they weren't really all child abuse and weren't really all in the schools) calculated on a yearly basis works out to about two tenths of one percent (2/1000) of the 3,700+ cases of child abuse documented by DHS for 1997. DHS also had over 3,000 additional cases thought worth investigating, but lacked resources to perform the investigation.(See 1999 figures.) And of the two tenths of one percent upon which the Commissioner is basing his arguments, 3/4 (his figures) occurred after initial hiring and so would not be prevented by fingerprinting (DOE actually gives no figures for abuse by previous offenders in schools, only stating that cases have occurred. In all likelihood, cases that COULD have been affected by fp are vanishingly rare. Otherwise, we'd have heard the figures.). These numbers are consistent with national statistics which show child abuse by school personnel to be so rare as to not merit its own category. Is fingerprinting of school employees going to make any real impact on child abuse in Maine at an upfront cost of some $3,000,000 in the first five years and perhaps $900,000 per year thereafter? The U.S. Congress doesn't seem to think so.
It is not currently clear what other states are doing. Certainly, the implication that all these other states (44 is the last we heard) have a law as Draconian as Maine's is not accurate. And if they do, so what? Let them have the recruiting problems, the retention problems, the disenchantment that we now have. The schools are not a good place for pedphiles, especially those with prior records. No creditible evidence has ever been offered that there is a big pool of previously convicted offenders slavering at the doors of our schools. And if there were, there are lots of better ways of controlling or eliminating them. Fingerprinting is a political solution to a human problem. It doesn't work.
Check the fact sheet
These pages present a resource where those in opposition to this law can exchange their ideas. Write to info@slipperyslope.org to see how you can place your ideas on these pages. What we present here represents only a start. The list of resources will grow as fast as I receive material and can get it up. Don Tarbet
Especially, I invite those of our elected representatives who oppose this law to use this forum to express their views.