Been there, done that, repealed it
Historical Perspective
by Ardeana Hamlin
As I listened to and read about
the current debate, I remembered being fingerprinted as a 9 year old in
1954. I had no idea why that was done so I went sleuthing and here's a bit
of what I found.
From BDN, May 21, 1943: "In the welter of other bills before the Legislature
this law received little public attention and was not generally known until
the identification officers met yestserday to map a program to meet the
task. . . . . . The law requires 'all children in the state attending public
schools, or their equivalent shall be fingerprinted for civilian
identification'.
From BDN, March 1944: FINGERPRINTING OF BANGOR PUPILS TO BEGIN MONDAY. "Two
sets of prints are to be taken, one to be forwarded to State police
headquarters and the other to the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
From BDN, 1969: "According to Captain Jordon, Maine is the only state in the
union which fingerprints all its schoolchildren. He stressed the school
files are not used for the investigation of criminal cases . . . . The
program orginated in 1941 on the eve of WW II. . . . The fingerprints are a
requirement for graduation (that criteria was set in 1946 -AH) . . . He said
that new civil rights legislation apparently makes it impossible for any
other state to adopt a similar mandatory fingerprinting system comparable to
Maine's."
From BDN, Feb 9, 1973: The Maine legislature completed its sixth work week
Thursday with the Senate enacting a bill to end the practice of
fingerprinting school children. Rep. Theodore Curtis Jr., R-Orono,
sponsored the bill to end the program, saying it is costly and some parents
object to the prints being taken. State police, who maintain the files,
agreed with Curtis. In addition, they said the program tied up troopers who
would otherwise be on highway patrol."
I believe this information offers an historical
context for the argument against mandatory fingerprinting and might be of
use in current debate. Maine has already been there, done that, repealed it.