Safe Assumptions

A few weeks ago, my friend Rogers approached me concerned about her former place of employment. As a Savoy Recreation Center employee, she had learned that the Village of Savoy by law does not have to do background checks on their recreation employees. They apparently try do as much as they can with sources that are free (like checking the registered sex offenders list) for all full-time people, but according to Rogers' interactions with Village Board member Dick Helton, the village board feels that their minimal efforts are enough.

Rogers was disappointed in his response, so she decided to do more research. Apparently park districts are required by law to do background checks on their employees. So places like Champaign and Urbana do them for all of their employees, but they also go above and beyond and do them for their volunteers. 

Monticello isn't required to do background checks either (not a park district), but they don't pay the $10-15 to do the state-level check. Instead, they ring up the local law authorities who do local checks. So if someone had charges in Chicago and then moved down here, they may not know about it. 

As a parent, I always assumed when I sent my kid to summer camps or into the kid room at park areas that my elected officials and their employees would have found the children in my community worth $10-15 an employee to try and ensure a safe environment. I'm disappointed in the Village of Savoy to find out that's not the case. What's worse, is that they don't tell families that they don't follow the protocols that partnering recreation facilities in park districts do as a norm... 

So, here MacTroll and I are drafting a letter to go to Dick Helton and Savoy Recreation Center Director Tiffany DeSpain about how we won't be enrolling X-man in any kid-related programs at the Rec Center until the policy changes (now that he's finally old enough to take part in them). We'll instead pay non-resident fees to use other facilities who do the administrative legwork to try and keep kids safe.

If there's one thing I learned by going to the Child Assault Prevention Education seminar last fall, it's that the people that are most likely to hurt kids are the ones they feel safe with like their neighbors, family members, teachers and coaches. A creepy 90 percent of the time that fact hold true.

I know I can't protect him from everything, but the least community officials could do is help me out on the HR end. I'd much rather have tax dollars go to that then to maintaining a dock at the Dana Colbert Park.

If you'd like to help protect kids (even if you don't use the SRC) in our community, I'd urge you too to send an e-mail to Dick Helton dhelton@soltec.net and Tiffany Despain  tdespain@soltec.net inquiring about the issue. Hear them tell you about it themselves and then decide if you want them to take action. 

You can also contact the Monticello Park District and ask them to do a more thorough state-level background check, too.