Views differ on FSDB workers
Chief: School can decide whether workers fit to serve
By RICHARD PRIOR
Posted: Sunday, April 1, 2007 ; Updated: 6:00 AM on Sunday, April 1, 2007
The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind has the authority to allow felons on campus after reviewing their criminal histories, according to the school's police chief.
A former member of the school's Board of Trustees disagrees with Chief Jerry Chandlee's understanding of the law.
"I don't know where (Chandlee) gets that interpretation from," said Kurt Ponchak, bureau chief of Operations and Compliance for the State Division of Blind Services in Tallahassee. "That's not the way I remember the law."
In a letter to the editor of The St. Augustine Record, Chandlee wrote that each school district can decide which workers are "fit to serve in that district."
"Each district must make its own case-by-case determination of whether an act or acts revealed in a background check disqualifies an individual from employment at the district," Chandlee wrote.
Chandlee's letter to the editor was in response to a March 25 story in The Record that dealt with a dozen construction workers and roofers who came on the FSDB campus over the past two years.
The men had been convicted of offenses that included drug sale and trafficking, aggravated battery, and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child.
School districts have been required to run background checks on staff, vendors, contractors and most visitors since the Jessica Lunsford Act became law on May 2, 2005.
The checks include a fingerprint scan as well as a review of state and national criminal databases.
The Act says that those who have been "convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude shall not be employed, engaged to provide services, or serve in any position requiring direct contact with students."
Jacksonville attorney Mark Gelman, who represents the Jessica Lunsford Foundation, also disagreed with Chandlee's interpretation of the law.
Background checks either allow a person to work on school grounds or it bars them, Gelman said, agreeing there is no "middle ground" for felons who commit certain crimes.
Howard Jones, a former employee of the FSDB Police Department, notified the Board of Trustees, state agencies and public officials of the apparent violations of the Lunsford Act in a May 2006 letter.
Messages left: Eight phone calls were placed to the Public Information Office at FSDB, asking for comments from President Elmer Dillingham about this story. Messages left with the office also said The St. Augustine Record would correct any of the "inaccuracies, misquotes and distortions of the facts" that Dillingham said were in the March 25 story.
The only response was a letter to the editor from Police Chief Jerry Chandlee that was received Friday afternoon.
One of the administration's reactions, according to separate sources, was to form a "Background Review Committee" to hear appeals from the barred felons or their employers.
Members of the committee are Chandlee, school President Elmer Dillingham and Business Office Administrator Terri Wiseman.
"I don't know what there is to appeal," said Jones. "You pass the background check, or you don't. There's nothing in between."
The Record does not have any information that the committee's reviews resulted in additional felons being allowed on campus.
"Philosophically," having an appeal committee is not a bad idea, Ponchak said.
"But that's not the issue," he quickly added. "The issue is they didn't have that in place when these people were allowed in the school. They arbitrarily did what they wanted to do."
Chandlee's letter did not address the issue of allowing felons on campus after the Jessica Lunsford Act became law. Instead, he wrote that Jones had violated the law when he spoke to The Record about the 12 felons who had worked in construction and roofing jobs on campus with the approval of the school's president.
"It is his attempt at hiding the ball," Gelman wrote in response. "It is interesting that he (Chandlee) blames (Jones) for violating Florida statutes, indicating that (Jones) (is) violating the personal right of felons.
"He (Chandlee) is the one that is non compliant with Florida statutes."
State Sen. Nancy Argenziano (R-District 3), author of the Jessica Lunsford Act, is working this session on a "glitch" bill, which will specify the crimes that bar felons from campus.
This bill also will include penalties for school districts that don't follow the law's requirements.
Violations would be classified third-degree felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Gelman said he discussed The Record's March 25 story with Mark Lunsford, who was "very upset, particularly with the part about the sex offender being allowed at the school."
When that happened, Lunsford felt, "That was a big slap in the face to the Jessica Lunsford Act," said Gelman. "Mark was very disappointed to hear that happened. He thinks there should be some accountability."
The law was named for the 9-year-old Citrus County girl who was abducted from her home in February 2005 and buried alive in a 2‡-foot hole under John Evander Couey's front porch.
A Miami jury found Couey guilty on March 7 and recommended the death penalty.
because its a state property and around kids too thats wrong of them to do it
