WHY SHOULD I OPPOSE FINGERPRINTING?
The first and foremost reason to oppose fingerprinting is because according to the criminal
system in this country a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. This law says
"You're guilty unless your fingerprints prove you innocent."
Secondly, this law is very ineffective. It would only catch someone who had already been
convicted of sexually abusing a child. That's convicted, not arrested, not fired, not sued in a
civil court, but actually convicted in a court of law. Others would slide right through no
matter how many children they had hurt.
Third, the expense of this program is huge. Although we are tempted to focus on money, the
greatest loss to us will be the more than 50 teachers who will quit teaching because of this
law. Then,of course there is the 2.5 - 3.5 million dollar cost of obtaining the prints, plus
all the overtime being paid to the state police to fingerprint the personnel.
The State of Maine is saying that teachers are not trustworthy. This is a
terrible precedent. The truth is that school is the safest place a child can be today, even
safer than home in many circumstances. Fingerprinting teachers is a serious violation of their
civil rights.
There are other methods of finding out information about prospective employees that are more
effective than fingerprints. A source at the FBI office for background fingerprints states
that individual states will discover that they cannot get information using prints that they
couldn't have discovered without them.
The teachers who will quit because of this law have over 1000 years of dedicated, unblemished
teaching experience. In a state already short of teachers, can we really afford this? Do we even
want to take the chance? Some 3000 cases of known child abuse in Maine are not prosecuted
because there is no money to pay for it. Can we afford to spend money on fingerprints?
The proponents of fingerprinting ask, "Isn't it worth it if we save only one child?" We say a
resounding YES, but it will be even better if we can save hundreds or thousands,by using more
effective measures.