Colleges heighten background investigations on students: Case study The University of Central Florida

By: Stefanie Kuncman
Central Florida Future

Almost 10 percent of colleges now require students to submit to background checks before they can live on campus to increase the safety of college housing.

UCF, however, does not check a student's background unless the student indicates a criminal history on his or her admissions application.

Colleges have increased background checks due to incidents resulting in deadly violence on campus such as Virginia Tech. Schools are realizing how hazardous it is to allow potentially dangerous students to live with others in school-sanctioned housing.

UCF does not have a formal process for background-checking students before they move into campus housing. According to UCF News & Information, however, every applicant is required to tell the univsersity of any criminal history when they apply.

UCF officials say they value its students' safety.

"The safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors is our top priority at UCF," a statement from News & Information said.

And UCF is not without a screening procedure. According to News & Information, cases of students with criminal histories are turned over to the Office of Student Conduct for investigation. Office of Student Conduct then decides whether to recommend students for admission to the college.

If admitted, the office of Housing and Residence Life reviews the Office of Student Conduct's recommendations for those students who have applied to live on campus.

If students are found out to have undisclosed their prior violation of law, other than minor traffic infractions, they may not be admitted and may face other disciplinary action, the statement from News & Information said. Punishments could include expulsion.

Question 23 B on the UCF Undergraduate Admissions Application reads "Have you ever been charged with or convicted of a felony." The student checks yes or no. It then reads "In the past 10 years and including any pending charges, have you been the subject of any criminal proceeding other than a minor traffic violation?"

Stephanie Lashway, a 21-year-old senior does not agree that the current screening process is sufficient.

"Freshman year I would get e-mails frequently about sexual predators in Nike," Lashway said. "If this is a problem, they should have required background checks sooner. Parents send their children to college with the assumption that they will be safe."

The statement from News & Information did include that many positions on campus do require background checks.

According to the statement, background checks are conducted on all staff and student employees of Housing and Residence Life, incuding residence hall assitants, before they are hired.

UCF also conducts checks on all newly hired faculty, including adjuncts and most staff members. Those include Executive, Administrative and Proffesional, or University Support Personnel System, the statement added.

There are also some departments on campus that have additional background requirements for students, faculty and staff.

For example, the College of Nursing requires two background checks for all students, volunteers and employees. One check is conducted when students or staff apply and another is completed when they are accepted to work or study.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns

Background Investigation never done on DCF executive arrested on child pornography charges

A Department of Children and Families spokesman was arrested on child pornography charges Friday for allegedly offering at least two teenagers money in exchange for photographing them in sexual acts.

Al Zimmerman, 40, was charged with eight felony counts of using a child in a sexual performance, but Tampa police said Saturday more charges could be filed in the next week. He was released from the Hillsborough County jail on Saturday afternoon after posting $120,000 bond.

At least one of the teenagers involved had ties to the child protection agency, DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth said. Officials said they could not release any information on the link, citing an ongoing investigation.

The incidences occurred as recently as Friday and date to December 2005, according to an arrest report.

The teens were 16 and 17 at the time of at least one of the incidences, and at least one is from Orange County, the report said.

Zimmerman, who worked at the department's Tallahassee headquarters, was put on paid administrative leave Thursday afternoon when Butterworth learned of the law enforcement investigation. He was immediately fired Friday after his arrest.

"Here is an agency that is really trying hard to regain a very good image. Unfortunately, this particular activity hurts the image,'' Butterworth said. ''All of us feel like he absolutely betrayed us." Tyra Hearns the President of background investigation firm Pebi Services added "My views are completely in line with Mr. Butterworth's it is a betrayal to everyone."

Zimmerman, who lives in Tallahassee, could not be reached for comment.

He was arrested Friday afternoon in Lakeland, where his parents live. A call to their residence was not returned.

Zimmerman was hired by DCF in March 2005 to be a public information officer for the department's field office in Wildwood. He was transferred in August 2006 to Tallahassee, where he was responsible for answering questions from the media, drafting press releases and putting together a newsletter, said Erin Geraghty, DCF communications director and Zimmerman's former boss. He had no direct access to children, Geraghty said.

As spokesman, Zimmerman earned $75,686 a year.

DCF chief Butterworth said the agency did not conduct an extensive background investigation on Zimmerman at the time he was hired, and he was not fingerprinted. "That is a galring and obviously huge mistake on DCF's part,"said Hearns

Although it was not the department's policy to do criminal background investigations for Zimmerman's job classification, it was customary at the time, Butterworth said.

Had they done the background investigation, DCF officials would have found three items that may have put up red flags, Butterworth said.

State records show that Zimmerman was arrested in 2003 on misdemeanor charges for writing a worthless check. The charges were eventually dropped. "As this saga unfolds it is appalling that DCf allowed this to happen," said Tyra Hearns

He was arrested for driving under the influence about 15 years ago in Georgia, and he may have an outstanding warrant for grand theft in Texas, Butterworth said. The theft was for less than $500.

"If we would have had these three, he may or may not have been hired," Butterworth said. But Butterworth said there was "no indicator that he would have been involved in what he is involved in now."

DCF officials plan to review the agency's background investigation policy. The department began enforcing a more extensive policy in August 2006, Butterworth said.

"I want to make sure that it's being done and it's being done systemwide," he said. "I want to go back and make sure that all of our employees have undergone the appropriate background investigation and screening."

Before being hired by the agency, Zimmerman worked for Bay News 9, a 24-hour local cable news station in the Tampa Bay area. He also has worked for television stations in Georgia and Texas and is a graduate of Syracuse University.

Gov. Charlie Crist was among five references listed on Zimmerman's résumé when he applied for the DCF job. Crist, who was the state's attorney general at the time, was not one of the references DCF officials called.

A spokeswoman for the governor said Crist knew Zimmerman through his reporting job in Tampa Bay but does not remember being asked to be one of his references.

If convicted, Zimmerman faces up to 120 years in prison.

Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the attorney general's office continue to look for other possible victims. DCF is cooperating with the investigation.

"Every photograph, every image, every lasting impression of a child's sexual abuse perpetuates this horrible crime over and over again," Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement. "CyberCrime knows no boundaries, targets all demographics, and should never fail to galvanize us into action to protect our children from these predators."

Zimmerman's arrest is another black eye for DCF, which has faced criticism since 2002, when it was discovered that a Miami investigator had lied about visiting the foster parents of 4-year-old Rilya Wilson. The girl had been missing for a year and has never been found.

More recently, former Secretary Lucy Hadi resigned after being found in contempt of court for not moving inmates to state hospitals if they were incompetent to stand trial. Before that, Jerry Regier left the position after an investigation showed he accepted favors from contractors. Regier had replaced Kathleen Kearney, who resigned after Wilson disappeared.

Last year, a child protection task force criticized DCF officials because a 2-year-old foster girl was missing for four months before DCF notified police to begin searching for her.