Education may be one of the most important things in a person’s life. It shapes your knowledge and can even influence your personality and interests. Heck, it could reshape your life depending on how committed you are or not to it. And who is responsible for our education, other than ourselves? Teachers. Professors. People with knowledge and experience far beyond our own, proficient enough to teach it to students year after year. Now these teachers have even stricter requirements to get a job, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.
All teachers already have to pass the Criminal History Record Check (CHRC), according to Confluence. The Department of Education only has to check for Section V Violations. Some of these violations are intent to distribute a controlled drug, assault, human trafficking, indecent exposure and murder. All completely reasonable. I wouldn’t want a drug dealer or Jeffrey Dahmer near my kids or my friends, either.
In the simplest terms, if aspiring teachers break certain laws then they can’t become a teacher. There were already laws prior to this, but now state legislation has added domestic violence charges, falsified academic records, robbery and felony-level assaults to the list of no-nos for teachers trying to get a job as of early April.
I completely agree with this. Someone with moral or anger issues should not be allowed near students, especially at the elementary or middle school level. In no way would I want an abuser or robber to be near children or teenagers. If there’s anyone out there saying that’s restricting someone’s rights, then maybe that person should have made better choices.
The New Hampshire Department of Education will pause a teacher’s application if they have been charged with domestic violence or another crime that blocks a teacher from being in a school setting. The pause will stay on the application until they are cleared. If they are convicted, then their application will be blocked.
Still, there seems to be a lot of teachers being arrested in N.H. for some of these crimes. Does that insinuate that the background checks aren’t enough? Or is the iPad kid and brain-rotted generation too much for teachers to handle nowadays?
This new law was passed through the N.H. House and Senate with practically no argument. I mean, what’s there to argue? Do we not want to ensure kids are safe in schools, that the adults they’re expected to trust are actually trustworthy?
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
