Fingerprints and rights

At first glance, it seems only good could come of the Legislature’s passing a bill to require fingerprinting of school employees for a background check to see if they were convicted of a crime in other states. I’m surprised a thorough check was not made before this. These are our children who need to be protected from criminals who have been convicted in Maine or out of state.

But there are some sticking points in this legislation. One is that the school employees must pay for their own background check, even including long-time teachers who are coming up for recertification. The goal of the legislation is to protect children belonging to all of us, not just to the school employees, and we should all be paying for it, in other words, using state funds. And surely, public employees shouldn’t have to pay a fee in order to be considered for their jobs. Their qualifications are their experience and education, not their ability to pay.

But there is more. What happens to the fingerprints used for the background check after the employees have been cleared of any police records? That the fingerprints will be kept on file with the FBI — even though these are citizens who are not guilty of anything besides wanting to make a career of teaching and taking care of our children — seems another weakening of our civil rights. We are innocent until proven guilty. Yes, we are. In this regard, our teachers have a much better reputation than the FBI itself.

To take fingerprints over again every time there needs to be a background check may cost more. Safeguarding our liberties does cost more. But we can choose how to spend our money.

Do all lawmakers think beyond the immediate effect of their laws? They are rushed and sometimes they don’t. Do all law enforcers take care to protect our civil liberties? Sometimes they don’t — as the most casual look at the past actions of the FBI will verify. Maine can do better. I hope that law can be cleaned up so our schoolchildren can be protected without our teachers being treated like felons. Carol R. Andersen Old Town