By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE vetting process for expatriate teachers is a crucial tool for the Ministry of Education as past shortfalls have resulted in hiring teachers who were sexual predators, Education Director Lionel Sands revealed.

Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson yesterday expressed outrage over attempts to organise the fingerprinting of expatriate teachers, whom she claimed have been subject to intimidation tactics.

“[Wilson] is claiming that the Employment Act says that it’s illegal, well that may be so, but the point is you can’t get a job without it because we need to know who you are. You come from Iceland, we don’t know who you are. We could be hiring a predator, and we’ve done that in the past, we’ve hired predators in the past. You know the consequences of that,” Mr Sands said.

After talks with government over the matter for the past two weeks, Mrs Wilson said she broke her silence yesterday when 15 teachers from CR Walker High School were bused to the Criminal Detective Unit to be fingerprinted that day.

In a BUT press statement yesterday: “This is against the law, the Employment Act 2001 and when President Belinda Wilson called her to enquire about the matter (CR Walker president) she said she was busy and she hung up the telephone.

“The BUT will not stand idly by and allow any member of our union rights be violated. The Government is in violation of its own laws.”

It added: “The expatriate teachers jobs are being threatened if they do not provide fingerprints, these prints is costing them $100 each.”

However, Director Sands countered that the transportation of CR Walker teachers to CDU was organized by the educators themselves and entirely voluntary. 

Mr Sands explained that fingerprinting was made a standard procedure for all expatriates seeking placement in the public education system in 2010.

In response to cost, Mr Sands said it was normal for an employee-hopeful to foot the bill for the job application process.

“Since 2010,” said Mr Sands, “all persons seeking employment as a teacher and all those who have been teaching and seeking reemployment must be vetted before employment or reemployment is made. Since 2008, we’ve had all these challenges with teachers and students, and so the ministry was concerned that it hired persons in the past with a checkered past and not exercising due diligence. 

“So that’s our requirement,” he said, “the only way you can determine that someone is who they say they are is by having them fingerprinted. When the police ask Interpol to run the background check, they use that information.”

“It may appear to be new to some,” he said, “but the persons who require fingerprints right now are teachers who were employed with us and were not vetted before, their reemployment has come up and it must be done.”

Yesterday, Mrs Wilson called on the government to give a public apology to teachers for their ordeal.