<p>I as surprised this hadn’t been brought up for discussion, so I thought I’d start a thread. Tis got some discusson (mostly of eye-rolling disbelief) in the office today.</p>
<p>In Virginia, all colleges (even privates) are being required to turn over the names and SSNs of student they accept. This is so the state police can check them against the sex offender registry. The state is doing it on accepted students, not enrolled students, because asking for enrolled students would get them into FERPA territory (it’s a loophole).</p>
<p>There are a number of things that are troubling about this plan, but I can’t get past how ineffective this plan is, when it comes to tracking anyone. I’m not just talking about the fact that there are likely few true dangerous sex offenders in the applicant pools. What do acceptances tell the state police? A student may be accepted to James Madison and Mary Washington an a half-dozen other VA colleges–which one did he end up at? They don’t know. Furthermore, he may also have been accepted at Dickinson or Arizona State and enroll there, never setting foot in the state of Virginia. And yet legislators are crowing about how this makes their college-going children safer. Please.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to the Post article about it:</p>
<p>Well, as colleges have been sued for having sex offenders and other ex-cons on campus who commit crimes I think they should try to know. If the privacy law is blocking that it needs to be changed.</p>
<p>I think it’s outrageous and it makes me very glad that my d. didn’t apply to any colleges in Virginia.</p>
<p>I also think that any use of of SS numbers by the colleges for any purpose other than that which is related to billing & financial aid is inappropriate – and I’ve already written my d’s college to tell them that. The reason I wrote is that they had a notice on their web site saying something like, oops, one of their computers has been hacked, and all student data including SS #'s was on the computer… and then I wrote asking why the heck the SS #'s were not encrypted or kept on a secure computer. </p>
<p>Drives me nuts. I think Congress ought to pass a law with strict fines and penalties for anyone who improperly disseminates a SS# to an unauthorized third party. The sharing of that info ought to be tightly regulated by law - and there is no way any state should be able to pass a law to skirt federal protections. The law also should set safeguards for the storage and handling of such data.</p>
<p>Excellent idea. All colleges should adopt this practice to better protect their students. No parent wants his or her child attending a college that permits sex offenders to enroll as students. Sounds like Virginia is for Lovers, not Sex Offenders.</p>
<p>So calmom, you’d be just fine if a Ted Bundy type was out on parole and enrolled at your kid’s school and the school did nothing to at least keep an eye on him and warn others about it?? That’s nuts.</p>
<p>They passed the legislation without any plan to inform colleges of what the State Police find. Presumably that’s going to happen, but as I understand it, the main thrust of the legislation right now is for colleges to hand over lists (which would end up being tens of thousands of namesm many of which will never enroll at the college or any college in VA) to investigators. It’s a particularly wide net when it comes to community colleges, because any application is pretty much an acceptance.</p>
<p>This strikes me as a particularly ineffective way to get the result they claim to want.</p>
<p>You can’t lock people up for life for a sex offense unless there are other crimes. Go to any of the sex offender lists out there and you will find dozens in your town if not your neighborhood. Also crimes as a juvenile usually result in short sentences.</p>
<p>Most colleges have an open campus - what’s stopping a sex offender who doesn’t go to college [or does, but not one in VA] from commiting the same crimes that this law is supposed to prevent? The pool that this law screens is just miniscule compared to the actual number of sex offenders outside the pool. Seems like this law is more to provide “that good fuzzy feeling” than any real results.</p>
<p>As an aside - I thought sex offenders were required to report any time they changed residence (not necessarily permanent address, but any location where they are for N or more months). Is such a law really in place in VA?</p>
<p>If you are setting them free, then they are not dangerous. Why should their privacy be ruined? FYI, I got things in the mail notifying a sex offender had moved into our zip code…</p>
<p>I just looked at crimes for which you can be classified as a sex offended. Among them, if you hire a prostitute, or ‘promote prostitution’, you can be labeled a sex offender. I hardly think a guy who hires a hooker can be equated to Ted Bundy.</p>
<p>If a man is to be set free, then the courts must think that he has completed his punishment and is fit to mix in society again. If he is so dangerous that he should be listed, then he shouldn’t be free in the first place, dammit.</p>
<p>Oh, there seems to be quite a lot of people here who aren’t half as funny as they think they are.</p>
<p>Do VA colleges report data on all accepted students, or only VA residents? </p>
<p>If all accepted students, do the State Police then check the sex offender database of the accepted student’s home state? (I don’t believe there is a national sex offender database yet… or is there?)</p>
<p>What about accepted students that are convicted murderers, armed robbers, drug dealers? No need to screen them out, I guess.</p>
<p>This is a ridiculous law! I concur with karthikkito’s response.</p>
<p>Just for fun, I am going to have my son apply to UVa and leave off his SS#.</p>
<p>Am I confused? What kind of catch do they expect with this net? I mean, aren’t most “acceptances” 18 year olds? What percentage of 18 year olds have been convicted of sex offenses, served their time, and are now out on the street applying for college?</p>
<p>Washington just had to free a highly dangerous sex offender who completed his sentence but refused any treatment while in prison. Once you serve the sentence you are free, period. Many who are set free are highly dangerous people.</p>
<p>I understand the good intentions (tracking sex offenders because they don’t always file when they move), but I’m very anxious about the method. I really want to hear what comes out of the meeting to determine how we’re sharing all that data with the state police. I haven’t heard any details at this point.</p>
<p>
SS# comes through in ways other than on the application (transcripts, recommendations, supplements, FAFSA, etc.). At some point, I hope we move away from using them so much. At the very least, schools should have encryption in place for those numbers.</p>
<p>I don’t know what VA’s law is like, but in some places public nudity is a sexual offense (say, nudity related public urination). Also, a young man who has consensual sex with his minor girlfriend may be charged as a sex offender as well (if her parents are sufficiently peeved). Stupid pranks and a young relationships aren’t in the same category as other crimes I worry about–one hopes these are handled differently, or excluded from the list. And well they might–I’m just speculating here.</p>
No info has been sent anywhere. This is a new law. The Post article says there are meetings going on that will lay out the method for this data sharing.</p>