Mercy or Madness: Putting Felons in Schools

In Washington State, the legislature is considering HB 1189, which would allow convicted felons to volunteer in public schools. If felons can prove that they have been through a rehabilitation program, then the school would be unable to reject them on account of their criminal past—regardless of the nature of their conviction. Even sex crimes against minors would not prevent their participation.

There’s a lot that’s wrong here. For starters, we ought to consider that rehabilitation programs have low success rates and recidivism is alarmingly high across the nation. That’s not a judgment on the programs themselves. Changing one’s life can be done, but it requires a will to do so. Many do not have that desire, and even the most well-intentioned program cannot impart it. We know that someone who has been convicted of a crime is more likely to commit another crime than a non-criminal person is to commit his first.

A more important area of focus is that this bill, and the movement behind it, elevates the desires of criminals over the welfare of children. It is a disordered prioritization. The fact that some of these people would mean no harm is rendered immaterial when placed against the reality that some do, and moreover that innocent children will have to bear the brunt of such policies.

It is true that in many US states, occupational licenses present an unjust barrier that unfairly keeps reformed criminals from gainful employment in the trades. That’s bad for everyone and makes it more difficult for such a person to adopt a better path. Yet the attempt to integrate any criminal who has been through a rehabilitation program into schools is more than an over-correction to such policies. It is lunacy that ignores a society’s duty to protect the innocent and the vulnerable.

Recent decades have demonstrated a devaluation of children, which always takes place in late-stage civilizational collapse. Children are seen as accessories, only to be acknowledged and cherished if they are “wanted”. In broader society, fewer people have children because societal pressure creates a conformity to acceptability. Those children that exist are mistreated by entire institutions, as we have seen in schools’ hypersexualization campaigns and in medicine’s mutilation efforts.

The Washington legislature has even been fighting to prevent parents from being immediately notified if their child has been sexually assaulted by a staff member. Democrat lawmakers have insisted that a 48-hour delay be integrated before parents are informed. It is incomprehensible that any decent person would vote to keep parents in the dark while their child tries to understand and grapple with a sexual assault. It’s a horrific reality that would force the child to report her (or his) own victimization to her parents, or more likely, leave her isolated and without help to understand what had happened, while school bureaucrats play damage control games and law enforcement performs an investigation.

Some see no value in the natural institution of the family unit. To them, children have no particular caregiver outside of the state itself. Therefore, children become mere pawns in a bureaucratic machine, rather than human beings with parents whose job is to love, protect, and guide them.

Let’s be clear: Schools are among the top places for children to experience sexual abuse, in large part because child predators seek positions in which they will be placed around children. Thus, how such investigations are handled (or mismanaged) will affect thousands of children’s lives. It will decimate families. We know how such victimization leads to increased risks of depression, suicides, drug use, and every anti-social behavior imaginable. Preventing such abuse of our most vulnerable ought to be a priority, not an afterthought.

When you combine the attempt to place known criminals (including those with sexual assault histories) into schools with a 48-hour cover-up process, and a curriculum that encourages inappropriate discussions about sex, we are creating environments most conducive to abuse. While the lawmakers who are making these decisions are not likely to be directly in favor of abusing children, their recklessness is indicative of how they see children as being less important than political posturing. We must reject every modern effort to force children to bear the brunt of misguided social policies, including those that elevate the guilty above the innocent. We can express mercy towards reformed criminals without placing children at risk.