Rec Department: Safety of Kids Comes First

The Jefferson Recreation Department is currently working toward strengthening its background checks of volunteer coaches for all programs, according to its director Grace Rhinesmith.

“I am actually in preliminary discussions about fingerprinting volunteer coaches,” Rhinesmith said. “It’s in the very early stages at this point, and we’re not doing it to scare anyone off from coaching. We need our volunteers. We’re doing it because the children that play in our programs are our biggest concern, and we want to keep them safe.”

While Rhinesmith did not name a particular company that the department is working with, she said she has had discussions regarding other programs in addition to the background checks already in place.

after a background check revealed that he had a prior conviction as a sex offender.

“We use a program called LexisNexis, provided to us by the National Little League, to run checks of all of our coaches,” Rhinesmith said. “Every coach is checked every year, no matter how many years they have been coaching.”

Rhinesmith said that when Demott’s name was flagged in the background check, the department turned his name over to the police department, and they handled the matter from that point.

According to the Little League’s national web site, the organization provides every chartered  organization in the U.S. with 125 free LexisNexis searches each year. Additional searches beyond the 125 cost each town $1 each.

In addition, according to the Little League site, “Effective in 2007, the local league must conduct a nationwide search that contains the applicable government sex offender registry data. A check conducted only in one state no longer meets the minimum requirements of the regulations.”