Criminal background checks planned for rec department coaches and volunteers

By Justin Faulconer

Published: July 24, 2008

To ensure public safety in youth programs, Amherst County officials are now implementing criminal background checks on parks and recreation workers.

The Board of Supervisors voted July 15 to appropriate $2,300 to meet the projected first-year expense of performing the checks on coaches and other workers, paid and volunteer.

Sara Lu Christian, parks and recreation director, said the checks would be done every other year on returning coaches. That includes more than 100 coaching slots for fall soccer, winter basketball and spring soccer.

Coaches who help out with more than one sport would not be checked twice in the same year, she said.

Supervisors Chairman Vernon Wood said the step is good one for the county to ensure the safety of youngsters. A dollar value shouldn’t stand in the way of protecting them, said Wood, himself a former football coach in Nelson County.

“The saying that a bad volunteer is better than no volunteer is untrue and dangerous,” said Christian.

A list of offenses that would disqualify a person from serving include rape, manslaughter in any degree, any crime of a sexual nature, attempted murder, child neglect, animal cruelty, felony drug charges, theft, forgery, arson, kidnapping, assault and weapons violations.