Brockton Public Schools ramp up background screening procedures

Enterprise News reports that Brockton Public Schools in Massachusetts will implement an electronic system for tracking Criminal Offender Record Information data after criticism over the decline in CORI requests made since 2007. The news sources notes that 2007 was the last time that the school district re-checked the criminal histories of all teachers and other staff with access to students. Since then, there has been a 71 percent decline in the number of background checks requested by the school system. The initiative for increased background screening was spurred by the recent arrest of Kevin Treseler, a 21-year-old Stonehill College student accused of the forcible rape and sexual assault of an eight-year-old student, according to The Brockton Post. At the time, Treseler was a math tutor at Angelo Elementary School in Brockton. Enterprise news adds that along with the new electronic system, an audit of the district's human resources department is scheduled to be completed by June. "I think right now things are in the process of implementation, but I don’t think we have a finished product yet," Tom Minichiello, school committee vice president, told the media outlet. "Do I feel better now that we know there’s a problem and it’s being addressed? Yes, of course I feel better. But am I satisfied yet? No, I’m not."