Law will merit close look

The Howell Township Council could introduce an ordinance at its March 4 meeting that will reflect where American society has come over the last several decades.

An ordinance requiring fingerprinting and background checks of coaches or any volunteers working in township-sponsored youth activities and organizations is being developed.

The actual background check and final determination would come from the New Jersey State Police, who would submit an individual as "recommended" or "not recommended."

Obviously, the idea is to prevent children from coming into contact with adults who might cause them harm. Immediate disqualifications of applicants from serving as volunteers would include convictions for sexual assault and illegal sexual contact, and felonies such as robbery and homicide.

While we agree with the general intent of such a law, attention should be paid to laying out the process under which a person who is deemed to be "not recommended" may appeal that decision if he or she so desires.

In a discussion of this proposal, Deputy Mayor Kimberly Alvarez noted that cases of mistaken identity have been known to occur just because an individual who may have committed a crime has the same name as an applicant for a volunteer position who has never been in trouble.

She also noted there would be appeals made for many reasons, including by someone who may have committed a youthful indiscretion that upon closer scrutiny would be decided as worth overlooking if the time was taken to investigate the nature of the conviction.

We await the council’s introduction of this ordinance and once that has happened, look forward to Howell residents’ responses to the proposal.