Recent Tragic Death of Child-What Can We Learn from It?

The death of Hailey Owens is something we still hear in the media. We were hit especially hard in Springfield, MO. What made it worse was the man who killed the little girl was a teacher’s aide, coach and trusted society member. Many questions were asked; many accusations thrown. The bottom line, though, is this is a lesson for all of us. As much as we want to trust people in certain careers (teachers, preachers, etc), we have to be extremely careful, especially as parents. This story is a sad one. What makes it worse is there are no black and white answers. There isn’t a finger we can point, except at the perpetrator himself.  Employers don’t always know what goes on with employees after hours, in their own private lives. Could the school district have done something different? They could have done a background check on him (and all employees) annually, or at least every few years. Even that, though, wouldn’t have necessarily given them information to stop this tragedy from happening. If you are an employer, I highly encourage you to do a background check not only during the hiring process, but also every two to three years on the employee’s anniversary. This won’t stop crime 100%. However, it will certainly decrease it significantly.   Why? Because you don’t know what your employees are doing behind closed doors after hours. This particular individual had a history of lesser” crimes. However, with the position of trust he held, a lesser crime is a clear indicator of a much bigger problem. If an employee disregards minor criminal infraction, we all must ask ourselves “what other laws or social mores does this individual feel does not apply to him”? Statistically, a person commits more than 100 crimes in his/her lifetime before he/she is actually “caught” or punished for an infraction, Lesser crimes are indicators of bigger problems below the surface. Trust….but Verify!