WT sports may force background checks
Thursday, October 04, 2007

By Jessica Beym
Gloucester County Times

WASHINGTON TWP. To safeguard the thousands of children who participate in Gloucester County's largest municipal sports organization, the township is implementing mandatory background checks on the hundreds of adults who volunteer.

Whether they hand out Gatorade or they coach the entire team, the adults who have one-on-one contact with the children in municipal youth sports will be subjected to criminal background checks, under a new ordinance proposed by council.

If it is approved this month, more than 1,500 volunteers who are currently involved must consent to the checks, or lose their positions.

The township plans to hire an outside agency to conduct the background checks, and while the cost of the service is unknown, the initial price will likely be significant, according to Municipal Services Director Jim McKeever.

"I think it will have a very low effect on the coaches and staff we have now," McKeever said. "It's just a safeguard for parents to feel safer that the kids participating in sports aren't in harms way."

Crimes that will raise a red flag with the township are outlined in the National Youth Sports Council's recommended guidelines and include indictable offenses such as crimes of sex, threats or violence. It also includes lesser offenses such as possession of drugs, cruelty to animals, or pornography.

Some of the sports organizations that are chartered under national titles such as Little League are required to have background checks performed.

However, John Daly, the chairman of the local soccer advisory board said all his organization requests is the coaches sign a statement saying they have never been convicted of a crime.

"We have 200, 300 volunteers in our program who we really don't know anything about," Daly said. "With so many kids and so many parents, I'm all for it. It's needed in today's society, unfortunately. You watch the news and the pedophiles are never who you think they'd be. They're people like your neighbors."

In other towns, such as Monroe and Harrison township, some but not all of the sports teams conduct reviews, and it isn't mandated by the municipality.

Under the Washington Township proposal, only the police chief, business administrator, and municipal services director will have access to the information revealed in the background checks, according to the ordinance. Those three will also comprise a review board, and will be allowed to determine, based on the circumstances of each person's criminal history, if the volunteers can keep their positions.

Township Solicitor John Eastlack said that for the lesser offenses, the review board will have to use discretion.

"Someone who had possession of marijuana at 18, and now they're 40 and have no problems at all, but if you have three or four drug possession charges over the last 10 years," Eastlack said. "You want to make sure your children aren't potentially around someone who shows a pattern of using drugs."

Privacy may be a concern to some of the parents, Daly said, but he thinks the children's safety will outweigh any other concerns.

"I think an overwhelming majority would support it as long as we're doing it the right way and the information is protected," Daly said. "The concerns of the few are worth it for the protection of the many."

Eastlack said that while only the review board which doesn't include the township council or mayor will have access to the information, it is a matter of public record and could be obtained by anyone, probably for a small fee.

The Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation named after the 7-year-old girl who was raped and killed by a convicted sex offender raises money to help perform background checks to protect children. Kanka's mother contacted the township some time ago to suggest that, because of the township's size, a background check should be implemented, according to McKeever.