Along with the handful of new policies implemented this school year, FCPS will adopt a new Rap Back Service. This system will continuously monitor teachers through background checks of their career to ensure that they are immediately held accountable for any criminal involvement.
“It’s not a bad thing to run them continuously or at least periodically,” band director Christopher Weise said. “It also helps to make sure that there isn’t stuff cropping up in people’s backgrounds that means that they shouldn’t be in front of students.”
Under the Code of Virginia § 52-46, FCPS will be the first county in the state to adopt the system.
“We need to know who these people are that are coming into our buildings and spending the majority of our time with students, even more so than parents, to make sure that all the people are safe,” sports medicine teacher Chelsea Rain said.
Before the Rap Back system, criminal background checks only showed a teacher’s record before they started working. This new system enables FCPS to see new arrests or convictions in real time as soon as they occur.
“[Under the old system], if a teacher were to have something come up on their record that is nefarious, unless they voluntarily reported it to their administrator or the county, some stuff could get by,” Weise said.
All employees, independent contractors and Level 3 volunteers such as chaperones, tutors and coaches, are required to register with this new system. School Resource Officer Scott Davis had to go through this process when he volunteered to coach girls’ flag football.
“I still had to go through all the background work,” Davis said. “I had to fill out all the information of who I was, give them my wife’s information, my kid’s information [and I] had to get fingerprinted again.”
Once the Virginia Department of State Police gather information about criminal activity, they will notify FCPS.
“It makes me extra cautious with making sure I’m out in the hallway speaking to students, and that I’m not putting myself in a position where I could lose my job,” Rain said. “It’s not hard to follow the rules.”
Three years ago, a school counselor at Glasgow Middle School continued to work after an initial arrest, only being called out after the second arrest. To prevent similar situations from occurring, Rap Back was enacted to increase school safety by ensuring that teachers are not endangering students.
“You would think people in this line of work are [here] because they want to help the youth be better in the future,” Rain said. “It’s scary when you hear things in the news about what people are doing. It’s repulsive in some ways.”
Most teachers are in support of the surveillance, focusing on prioritizing the safety of their students.
“[Rap Backs] should have been brought around much sooner,” Rain said. “Especially with the scandals that you hear about.”
The system does bring concerns: if someone is wrongfully charged with a crime, then a teacher could possibly lose their job.
“I would rather someone be [falsely] accused, be removed and then be brought back, than someone be accused, let [to] continue to work and then find that it’s true,” Rain said. “Then, you’re surrounding everyone in [the] building with someone that could be doing something wrong in the meantime.”
These are only the initial steps of Rap Back; the system is still being fine-tuned to provide more protection and surveillance.
“It’s nice that they’re starting [Rap Backs],” Rain said, “But I want to see it go all the way through and continue to add more [components] to keep everyone safe.”
Teachers believe that safety should be the top priority for the school environment.
“It’s good that they’re doing an initial background check. If you’re not initially in a good position, then you shouldn’t be here at all,” Rain said. “It’s nice to know that they’re taking bigger strides to protect not only our students, but also our other staff members.”
