Background checks for college RA's

With calls for background checks on ice-cream vendors, to book a hotel room and on college athletes, we now have a West Tennessee mother wanting background checks on college resident assistants after a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga student was accused of placing hidden cameras in dorm rooms, including her daughter’s. On Monday, police arrested UT Chattanooga student Bernard “Junior” Morris on more than a dozen charges. Police said surveillance cameras were found in students’ apartments following spring break. Morris, a 23-year-old former resident assistant at the university, will be arraigned April 4 on 13 felony burglary charges, one charge of aggravated arson and two misdemeanor theft charges, according to UT Chattanooga police. Would performing background checks on all RA’s be a good idea? Or what about background screening all students prior to attending college? In this instance, Morris had previous incidents and so a check would have informed the school of his priors, but overall would this prevent future incidents? It seems the school has now changed it’s policy so that all resident assistants require a background check – whether this will become legislation is yet to be decided. Mitzi Ganus – whose daughter was among the students who returned from spring break to find new alarm clocks (which turned out to be cameras) mysteriously placed in their rooms – plans to speak with a political official to see if a bill can ensure colleges check criminal histories for someone in a supervisory position such as Morris. “I want every parent with a student in school to check with their colleges because there is no excuse for that,” she said.]]>