Officials grapple with school-worker crime list

A list of possible convicted criminals released to schools last month has seven Brandon Schools employees on it, a Brandon official reported last week.
The public release of a list naming local school employees with convictions has been delayed following a Feb. 10 circuit court ruling on the matter. The information was blocked because of mass inaccuracies on the list, according to a statement issued by the Michigan State Police.
Brandon Superintendent Tom Miller says six of the seven individuals are still employed in the school district. One employee has since left the district.
‘We met with the individuals and determined that two of the six were correct,? he said. ‘None of the crimes were felonies and none were sexual in nature.?
Miller would not say if those on the list were teachers in the district or what future action on the issue was anticipated by the district.
‘The information was returned to the state and we will wait for their direction.?
Earlier this month, Goodrich Superintendent Kim Hart reported all school employees named on what she called a ‘short list? of offenders have denied wrongdoing. The employees on the list were fingerprinted by police in hopes of clarifying any inaccuracies.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk issued a preliminary injunction preventing the release of names after hearing testimony from four teachers whose names appear on the list for crimes they deny committing, according to the MEA.
The list was created after legislature adopted the Pupil Protection laws in September. The laws went into effect in January, and were designed to protect students from employees with a criminal sexual history.
Tim Bolles, from the Michigan State Police in Lansing, says an updated list is currently being compiled.
‘The Department of Education has provided us with a new list of all the employees,? said Bolles, during an interview on Wednesday.
‘We are running that against our criminal database and we will do a validation before we provide information back to the Department of Education. We will provide all positive hits for a criminal history back to the Department of Education by March 31.?

A list of possible convicted criminals released to schools last month has seven Brandon Schools employees on it, a Brandon official reported last week.
The public release of a list naming local school employees with convictions has been delayed following a Feb. 10 circuit court ruling on the matter. The information was blocked because of mass inaccuracies on the list, according to a statement issued by the Michigan State Police.
Brandon Superintendent Tom Miller says six of the seven individuals are still employed in the school district. One employee has since left the district.
‘We met with the individuals and determined that two of the six were correct,? he said. ‘None of the crimes were felonies and none were sexual in nature.?
Miller would not say if those on the list were teachers in the district or what future action on the issue was anticipated by the district.
‘The information was returned to the state and we will wait for their direction.?
Earlier this month, Goodrich Superintendent Kim Hart reported all school employees named on what she called a ‘short list? of offenders have denied wrongdoing. The employees on the list were fingerprinted by police in hopes of clarifying any inaccuracies.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk issued a preliminary injunction preventing the release of names after hearing testimony from four teachers whose names appear on the list for crimes they deny committing, according to the MEA.
The list was created after legislature adopted the Pupil Protection laws in September. The laws went into effect in January, and were designed to protect students from employees with a criminal sexual history.
Tim Bolles, from the Michigan State Police in Lansing, says an updated list is currently being compiled.
‘The Department of Education has provided us with a new list of all the employees,? said Bolles, during an interview on Wednesday.
‘We are running that against our criminal database and we will do a validation before we provide information back to the Department of Education. We will provide all positive hits for a criminal history back to the Department of Education by March 31.?

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