So I got fingerprinted by the state police today

[GreenPartyVoter]

No, nothing so cool as MeganMonkey *g*. I am a cheerleading coach and in Maine teachers and staff have to be fingerprinted for a criminal background check.

I mentioned here a few weeks ago that this was going to happen to me, and folks reassured me that it was just some scan machine like the AFIS thing I see on CSI every other week. But now, they used ink. And the ladies room was out of soap. I ended up rubbing the stuff off with hemp hand cream. *g*

I do wonder, though, if we are headed to a world where everyone will be fingerprinted and entered into AFIS or some other criminal tracking system?

[MazeRat7]

1. Or at least a world where eveyone has a box a latex gloves at home *grin.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. *lol*

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. I was fingerprinted when I first started teaching high school

I felt vaguely like a criminal even though I had done nothing wrong. That kind of thing still bothers me.

I think that with all the child abductions--much hyped by the media--we will see more and more kids being fingerprinted. Eventually, I expect to see babies' fingerprints on their birth certificates. :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. The weird thing is I have a vague recollection of being printed as a kid

back in the 70s when we had our first real go-around with kidnapping fears. But, I could be imagining that I did that. It would have been maybe 25 26 years ago; long enough for me that things are looking misty back there. *g*

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Admit it, GPS. You WERE in a cell with MeganMonkey ; -)

Hemp cream? Let's see, ink on your fingertips, drug plant product handy, hmm. Are you sure you didn't vote in Afghanistan?
********************
We do seem to be headed toward a world where all of us will have DNA descriptors in a centralized system and we'll have other biometric markers used as ID. I am stunned by the number of people that I've encountered who don't find this the least bit troubling.

I was involved in afterschool activities as a kid and always thought I'd become an adult volunteer but I don't want to go through the fingerprinting, criminal background checks, and other hoops just for the privilege of volunteering. I am very much aware of the thinking that we're protecting children with these security procedures but there are still scout leaders molesting the troops and teachers having sex with students. All it does it prevent the hiring of people who've already been caught.

If there were rational regulations, such as stringent limits on confidentiality of data obtained in the background check, automatic transparent disclosure of the sources used to develop the background check, and destruction of the fingerprints after you clear the background check I'd feel differently.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Yeah, I didn't show the hemo cream to the cops. *g* But I did get

a kick out of having it right nearby them.

I wish they wouldn't just single teachers and other people who work closely with kids. I mean, minsters and doctors spend a lot of time with children. Are they getting printed too?

[Hello_Kitty]

7. Exactly. Those creeps can go for DECADES w/o getting caught

Meanwhile, my ex-bf who had a DUI several years earlier was denied when he tried to be a Big Brother volunteer. What the hell does an, admittedly, stupid mistake like that have to to with him being safe around kids?

[TryingToWarnYou]

8. The answer is in your post.

Safe around kids? That includes not drinking and driving which may include kids in the car. Im not saying he would do that, but thats why it was denied. Many, many DUI offenders repeat.