Tuesday, September 13, 2011
It's about time....
Well, what do you know? Virginia Beach public school officials have wisely decided to ditch a pricey sex-offender screening program before tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars were wasted on such lunacy.
(Of course, this enhanced security system did nab a pizza delivery guy with a record of sex offenses who was trying to - get this - deliver pizzas to the office of a middle school, which had ordered them.)
It's tempting to applaud educators for this bold display of common sense. We'll resist that temptation, though, because they explained that the program was scrapped because of tight finances and not because the sex-offender-detector essentially addressed a problem that doesn't exist.
The security system is designed to run the names of every school visitor through a national sex offender list. When there's a match, school officials are notified and the miscreant can be led away in handcuffs.
Smart, since we all know that sex offenders flock to schools because of the notoriously lax security.
Actually, that's not true. Not only is it often a felony for a convicted sex offender to venture onto school property, but most schools also already follow strict procedures designed to keep all strangers away from the kids. It usually involves locks and intelligent human beings who require visitors to show ID, sign in and out, and have a legitimate purpose for their visit.
The computer system would have cost $120,000 the first year and $36,288 annually if it had been installed in all Beach schools. What a waste. Especially when you consider that the starting salary for a teacher in the city is $38,597.
I'm old school when it comes to education. I think scarce resources ought to be spent on teachers, not gadgets designed to do little more than give overly nervous parents a false sense of security.
The pilot program was tried in three Beach schools this spring. The lone hit was the pizza man with a criminal past who was caught while dropping off a few extra-cheese delicacies to the Larkspur Middle School office.
It's true he wasn't supposed to be on school property. But were the kids in danger as he came through the door carrying a stack of greasy boxes? No. Do we even know that his crimes involved children? No. Was he charged with a felony for his actions? No.
School officials say they summoned the commonwealth attorney's office and the state and local police. It was decided that because the school ordered the pizza and the driver was simply doing his job, this was not a case that ought to be prosecuted.
What do you know? More common sense. This time from law enforcement.
We all want to keep kids safe. Truth is, schools do a remarkable job of keeping strangers from roaming the hallways. Anecdotally speaking, it seems kids are more likely to be harmed by classmates, teachers or coaches.
It isn't just Virginia Beach that fell for this security system. Chesapeake public schools installed a sex-offender detector system at the start of last school year. That one cost a whopping $268,400 and, according to news reports, hasn't even caught a shady pizza man yet.
By the way, Chesapeake used federal stimulus loot to pay for that system. Any wonder so few jobs were created by that massively expensive program out of Washington?
Naturally, some parents were delighted with the added layer of security. Others saw it for what it was - a windfall for private security firms, an empty gesture on the part of schools.
Here it comes. Any minute now, someone is going to trot out the tired "If it saves just one child, it's worth it" argument. Spare us. If we follow that logic, we should hire personal bodyguards for students.
Geez. I hope that doesn't give anyone an idea.
Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net
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