I have only just now read your posts on this thread. I think whatever adjustments you have made are ok now, because I don’t see any other username on your posts. So I don’t know your ‘regular’ user name. Fwiw.
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Actually … many don’t. They should, they may be legally required to do so. They may be a place the attracts child predators (schools, churches, kids’ sports facilities, etc.). But for whatever reason a really thorough check is not done everywhere, even if the organization does claim to do them.
A few years ago a local elementary school discovered that a registered sex offender had been teaching his favorite age, 2nd grade, for two years. Classic situation of a guy who was booted from one school after another and always found another teaching job in another town beyond the gossip circle of the last town. He was actually making a living even with a job change every 18 months to 2 years. He had been on the sex offender registry for many years but for some reason the school didn’t know that. It was never explained how they missed it – or if they properly searched.
I’ve worked for employers who claimed to do background checks and obtained the permission forms with signatures etc., but didn’t actually do them. Others didn’t do thorough checks.
I do not know exactly why so many organizations are so bad at doing background checks – some even not doing background checks at all, much less checks for sex offender status. Sometimes staff is poorly trained and doesn’t understand how to do their job well. Some background check services aren’t as good as they should be and miss things. Maybe services are considered to be “too expensive” (they do cost).
Also I strongly suspect that some employees who are supposed to check are of the mindset “that doesn’t happen here” and don’t think the nice person they are hiring could possibly be a sex offender. As if they would know on meeting them or something. They are easily impressed by Mr./Ms. Charming.
So I didn’t get to read Alter’s story as it has been deleted. But if some entity didn’t do a background check or didn’t find what is there to find, that would not strike me as unusual. Might be wrong. But wouldn’t be unusual.
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I assume that you had the mods remove them, because they are not there for me to remove.
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Here are a few anecdotal experiences of doing occasional background checks through an automated service. I haven’t done these in volume, so this just scratches the surface.
I searched on one person who come up with a clear report. Then I simply internet searched on the U.S. Dept. of Justice sex offender registry (search by name), which auto-links to state databases, and there he was. Hard to know why the service didn’t pick up on that.
(There was one offense in another state when he was 18 and the girl was 14, details not given. The requirement to report was “lifetime” even though the charge had been ‘dismissed’ when there was not another one after 10 years. He had been registering as required whenever he & his wife moved. He was in his 40’s when I knew him and had been well-employed for many years as a truck driver. He said that as a teen he had gotten the underage girlfriend pregnant and her parents had reacted strongly. He had left the state and paid child support. There was no way to verify this personal information without doing an investigation in the other state. He had no other record and sounded believable so I guess his employer was ok with his explanation.)
For what it is worth, background and credit check services vary in their thoroughness and reliability. For many reasons. It’s possible for different companies to report more or less information for the same person, from reports run at the same time.
Another person I searched came up on one casual check with two convictions for minor drug possession and a DUI. No jail time, apparently youthful indiscretion. A different search showed that he had had 5 arrests in two years, with several matters still under adjudication (I guess that is the correct term) and a potential jail term on the horizon. Arrests included theft. He was in his early 20’s and I wondered what juvenile record was not even visible.
See the links below for some concerning differences in background check companies. Yes, employers should understand the differences between the services they are likely to receive. No, in my experience a good many of them don’t. For many reasons. Among other reasons that the employee doing this task sees the background check as a last necessary evil in the hiring process and never expects a bad report, so it doesn’t seem important to them.
Background check services can be expensive. It can be anywhere from $50 to $100+ for a single background check on one person, depending on how thorough you want to be. Employers sometimes won’t run one until after a new hire has accepted an offer, so the new person is already almost on board, in the minds of the hiring personnel.
Some background check services limit their client base to larger employers. It can be hard for an independent business that doesn’t do a high volume of hires to even find a good, thorough service that will take them as a client.
Many services that are easily found and self-promoted on the internet are not running the most thorough background checks. They are cheaper but the results are sometimes not complete. But there is no way to know that without comparing results to the really thorough searches.
I know from my own experience that many hiring companies just run the report and do not have an employee who is an expert on background checks. They don’t know how comprehensive the report is, or is not. They don’t know what the report may be missing and how to cover possible gaps.
My own experience is that there are some employers that don’t run the checks at all. During the hiring process they will get the permission forms and signatures from applicants to have a complete hiring file. But then never run the check. I have never, ever understood this. I think some don’t want to spend the money and time. Maybe some hiring personnel think they will ‘know’ a bad egg when they meet one and don’t need a report to tell them so.
I’ve known employers to claim they ‘check credentials’ (whatever that means) but miss catching that a new hire lied about their education and/or certifications, about their criminal record, and yes about being a sex offender.
One large employer did not know that a young employee who claimed to have graduated high in his class from a prestigious university had never attended there. And that particular educational credential was a major reason he was hired! IF these fabrications are finally discovered somewhere down the line, after the person has been an employee for months, even years, that can be a chaotic process with an uncertain outcome.
In another case I was asked to help an office worker become familiar with a particular Excel spreadsheet. It was quickly apparent that she didn’t even know how to mouse, didn’t really know what a ‘mouse’ was, much less have even rudimentary spreadsheet skills. She admitted that she had never worked on a computer at all.
But computer and spreadsheet skills were key required skills and training credentials for her position. She admitted lying about this in the hiring process and explained “otherwise I wouldn’t have been hired”. She knew she would be found out and let go, she just wanted to keep the paycheck going as long as she could. How the heck did someone miss that in the hiring process? She had actually lasted several months by consciously diverting her tasks to something other than computers, until she couldn’t dodge computers any longer.
For every hire who has lied about their credentials, background, and prior job experience, and was caught, there are many who lied but are never caught. When such people change jobs many just apply to one company after another until they find one that doesn’t check and hires them.
There are employees out there with sketchy background records that the employer doesn’t know about. Because the employer doesn’t check, or because they don’t do a diligent check (and may not realize that).
Link: Regulated vs Unregulated background check companies
Link: Brief reasons why background check companies aren’t all the same …
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River chase didn’t make the list but Wulf Crest did for this year’s voting for the best of Loudoun.
6 and 1/2 dozen of another-
Sigh.
I’ve been spamming every one of the local moms group to stay away from River Chase. Wasn’t aware that Wulf Crest had someone there was a registered sex offender.
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Wulf Crest is essentially nothing more than River Chase operating under a different name, as far as everyone and everything involved there is concerned.
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I don’t appreciate your tone. That is not the service I used. I have that much sense.
Unfortunately as a low-volume business I don’t have access to the best-quality services available to large employers. But I do know how to do the independent searches. Also of police and court records.
But otherwise your point is good that the cheap easy-search services aren’t not worth anything.
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They can threaten whatever they want about involving lawyers. But a true review is not defamation. They would have to prove you posted something false.
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I wonder if Safe Sport should be made aware that that barn is threatening people with legal action for simply honestly noting the fact that an SS sanctioned individual is operating the facility.
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Is this the same person/barn you asked about on the Horse Abuse thread ?
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Nope. Not in Virginia at least. If you are talking about River Chase and the 2nd River Chase where TN’s former barn manager currently operates they try to delete reviews and local Facebook groups delete any comments that leave a negative review.
I’ve had so many posts removed and blocked on a couple groups.
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I’ve reached the very depressing conclusion that a significant portion of the NoVa equestrian community just don’t care. Wulf Crest advertises schooling shows and people go and support them. Parents don’t really do their homework before taking kids to ride at either of the two barns.
People just don’t care. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of other places to go for schooling shows. But hey… that farm is convenient and has an indoor. So people support them.
Sad.
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I couldn’t agree more with you. We only did an evaluation and saw how badly the horses are treated. And upon further research (which is not hard to see all of the public information), we found out about the offender. Which is why we put a honest review so other parents can read and make informed decisions involving the safety of their kids. But we got 2 threatening emails to remove our review.
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Shoooot, I think I’d post a link to any and all articles and records for the sexual offender. It’s not libel/slander if it’s true, and a criminal record settles that awfully fast. They can pound sand.
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Thats how you get blocked.
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Crazy enough, I was just browsing this thread. I live in New England but TN sounded familiar. Sure enough I’m friends with him on fb and he messaged me yearsssss ago when I was younger. For no reason. I have no connection. I never responded but one of those crazy 
moments
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He was convicted in NY I think… maybe late 90’s or early aughts? It involved a teenaged girl.
It was shared ages ago on one of the SafeSport discussion threads.
I would imagine bit comes right up if you pay $15 bucks or whatever it is these days to run a basic background heck on him.
He used to be on the sex offender registry, but something about his criminal disposition resulted in him coming off the registry a few years ago.
