Testimony on LD 1765
Submitted to the Committee on Educational and Cultural Affairs,
April 11, 2001
Senator Mitchell, Representative Richard, Members of the Committee, thank
you for the opportunity to speak with you today regarding LD 1765.
My name is Caroline Bond and I live in the town of Jefferson.
We are all in this room today because we have a common interest: the welfare
of Maine's children. And I am certain we are all passionate about keeping
our children safe, educated, happy and would walk through fire to make that
happen.
But I'm afraid the fire we are about to walk through is a fire stronger than
any of us can even imagine. The next few years will be a deciding factor
for how we respect and treat each other as citizens, as human beings. We
have some tough decisions to make about safety vs. freedoms. Can we have
both? I know we are not here today to talk directly about this particular
question, but LD 1765 is certainly one of many logs being thrown on that
fire I mentioned earlier.
We are here today to talk about an amendment that will allow the release of
personal, private, very confidential information gathered by fingerprinting
the citizens of the United States of America. Doesn't that make you feel
just a little bit uncomfortable? It should. We should also feel
uncomfortable, no, outraged that just a year ago our government was assuring
us this information would remain confidential within the Department of
Education. Many of the men and women working in our school systems
reluctantly agreed to submit to being fingerprinted because of this promise
made by our government.
Last year, when many of us were engaged in the debate over the original
fingerprinting law, I attended a town meeting held in Bath. After the
meeting I spoke directly with Judy Lucarelli, Deputy Commissioner for the
Maine Department of Education. I shared my concerns regarding the handling
of data found on school personnel as a result of background checks. She
assured me the law was specifically written to keep this information within
the Department of Education. We all heard this promise of confidentiality
over and over again, but now that our government has the law on the books,
it is looking to create an amendment that will allow this confidential data
to be handed over to yet another governmental committee. This amendment
will unravel the very assurances given to a group of people who dedicate
their lives to the welfare of children but who are under suspicion for
committing crimes. (Many of whom cannot be counted as a warm body or voice
of concern today because they are attending to their obligations with Maine's
children). This is an amendment that will only add fuel to a fire that is
growing bigger and hotter with every law passed that negates a citizen's
right to privacy.
We cannot be so naïve as to think this is a solution to keeping children
safe. We cannot be so naïve to believe that by releasing this information to
yet another governmental committee it is in the best interest of anyone,
especially our children. What kind of legacy are we creating for our
children when we pass laws that allow and encourage suspicion of the citizens
of this country?
LD 1765 is heading in the direction many of us feared when the original law
to fingerprint passed and we must ask ourselves, where will it end? At what
point will we as a democratic society say this is not the way to run a
country, under an umbrella of suspicion that is heading in the direction of
creating a national data base on all its' citizens? I ask that the
committee vote "ought not to pass" on LD 1765 and work to repeal the
fingerprinting law.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
Caroline L. Bond
Jefferson, ME