THOMASVILLE — Concerns about child safety are high this week following the Monday arrest of a Thomas County Central High School paraprofessional for furnishing obscene material to a minor.

After it was revealed that a background check on the man charged had not been completed, many questions arose about how the school system screens its employees.

On Friday, Thomas County Schools Personnel Director Carolyn White explained the school system’s criminal background check procedures.

White said every school employee, including certified teachers, paraprofessionals and substitute teachers must submit to a criminal background check. School secretaries, lunchroom workers, maintenance personnel and other school system employees must also be checked.

Each employee fills out an online application that asks if they have ever been arrested, convicted of a felony or discharged for a sexual conduct charge or sexual crime. Regardless of the applicant’s answer on that section of the application, the school system is required by law to run a two-pronged background check.

First, the school system sends the applicant’s information to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which administers a background check through the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC).

If needed, results of this check can be given to the school system almost overnight, White said. In addition, any time a certified employee applies for recertification, which is required every five years, another background check must be conducted.

The applicant also has to be fingerprinted for a background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a process that takes, on average, three to six months. FBI background checks on Thomas County School System employees are done in Atlanta.

By law, certified employees can work for the school system for up to 200 calendar days before the results of the FBI background check are complete. Substitutes can not work for the school system until the results come back.

If the employee indicates he or she has no criminal history on the application, and the background check reveals otherwise, that is grounds for termination, White said.

What’s more, those employees are reported to the state Professional Standards Commission (PSC), an organization that has the authority to revoke teaching certificates and take other professional action. Cases of moral turpitude — including fraud, the sale of drugs and sex offenses — are also reported to the PSC.

White said school officials also check an applicant’s references and former places of employment before hiring. However, even the most extensive background check does not predict what a person may be capable of.

In Chris White’s case, he was a Central graduate and was well known by administrators, teachers and students alike. “He just made a very bad decision,” Carolyn White said.

Chris White was a paraprofessional at the high school, under the supervision of another teacher. He is accused of sending a picture of male genitalia to a 16-year-old female student’s cell phone. Investigators say the picture was preceded by a sexually suggestive text message.

Before he was hired in August, White indicated on his application that he had not been arrested or charged with moral turpitude. As of this week, his criminal background check still had not been processed by the FBI. He has been fired from the Thomas County School System.

Carolyn White said the school system has been looking into purchasing its own fingerprinting equipment and technology to conduct more expedient background checks. Other schools have this technology, however, in the past, it has been too expensive for the local school system, White said.

Fingerprinting systems used by other school systems have cost as much as $30,000. White said that price has now dropped considerably, and may be more affordable now.



To contact reporter Brewer Turley, call (229) 226-2400, ext. 226.