The news media are doing their part. Newspapers throughout the country have run expos s on this problem. Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, the chief anchormen for NBC and CBS news, respectively, have recently highlighted the problem in their broadcasts. It's time for state and local school officials to catch up with the private sector in employment practices. We need to feel secure in the knowledge that every effort has been made to select people with the highest qualifications and most impeccable character possible to nurture our kids at school.
Children deserve safe schools.
Parents and school leaders would also agree, no doubt, that employees should behave morally and ethically, and should maintain reputations that are beyond reproach within the community. Imagine how parents in the Cleveland public schools must have felt when 22 school employees were removed from their jobs last year pending investigations of unreported criminal activities and falsified applications. The dirty laundry in the school system's closet was revealed by the local news media. Even worse, newspaper reports revealed that this same person had been accused of similar behavior in a previous position 13 years ago. One of the biggest problems in the school-employment arena appears to be applicants with false identities.