[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 21, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      A CALL FOR BACKGROUND CHECKS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, let me commend the gentlewoman from Texas 
[Ms. Granger] for that very important presentation.
  Let me also talk about a problem that occurs to our young people 
after they are born. A high school janitor accused in the death of a 
student had a history of violence, but school officials waited until 
after he was on the job before seeking background information from the 
State.
  The slaying of Michelle Montoya, 18-year-old popular Rio Linda High 
School student whose body was found in the school wood shop Friday, has 
focused attention on the school district's hiring policies and the 
State's handling of fingerprint checks and requests for background 
information.
  The janitor, 34-year-old Alex Del Thomas, has a four-page rap sheet 
that includes violent felonies. The Grant Joint Union High School 
District hired Thomas in April, but the district did not submit a 
request to the State justice department for information about Thomas's 
fingerprints and potential criminal history until weeks later.
  Thomas, a parolee, served nearly 12 years in Folsom prison for 
voluntary manslaughter. He pleaded guilty to the charge which stemmed 
from a 1984 Los Angeles robbery. Sheriff's investigators described him 
as a former member of the 107th Street Hoover Crips, a Los Angeles 
street gang.
  My colleagues, a child has died once again in our community because 
of a lack of checking the backgrounds of those that work around our 
children.
  Last week in Saint Lucie County, FL, a 2-year-old baby boy was raped 
by a 49-year-old individual and the baby died from a heart attack. Day 
after day you wake up to the TV shows describing another violent crime 
against our children, a violent crime of abuse, sexual perpetration, 
denying them their youth. And they are dying on our streets, or they 
are being convinced, through the Internet, to leave home and run off 
with someone else or being subjected to pornography and violence every 
day of their lives.
  In 1993, we passed the National Child Protection Act, amid lots of 
cheers and whistles. States may do background checks, if they choose, 
if they choose. In Florida, you need a background check and a 
fingerprint card to get a real estate license. In about 38 States you 
need background checks and fingerprints to cut hair, to be a 
cosmetologist.
  But if you are entrusted with the care of our children, if you are 
working in a day care center or school system or taking them out on 
field trips, we do not need to check the backgrounds. We will just let 
them go off merrily on their way and hope and pray that the children 
come back alive.
  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children today 
celebrated several heroes in our Nation's capital from around the 
country who have helped recover our children alive and healthy and 
brought them back to their homes after they had been abducted. I 
commend their hard work in seeking to solve the problem of abuse in our 
society.
  We will be formulating legislation and several of us will be back on 
the floor tomorrow talking about the missing and exploited children's 
programs that we are launching across the Nation. But it is really high 
time that we focus on how to protect our children.
  When you read a story like this, you have to ask yourself, how does a 
school district find it more important to have clean windows and clean 
hallways than protecting the lives of our children. They found it 
inconvenient to do a background check on this individual who just 
served time in prison for a felony murder. Had to rush and hire him. 
She was left to die inside her school's wood shop last week after she 
was beaten and her throat slashed.
  Michelle's parents do not get a second chance, but a small investment 
of tax dollars to make certain that that person was fit for the job 
could have been done and they could have held off hiring them and saved 
a life.
  But let us not let legislation get in the way. Let us not let 
protection of our children stand in the way of getting our jobs done. 
Let us not worry about another Michelle Montoya, because we are all 
much too busy. We pass laws in this Chamber and then we go on our way 
and think what a great job we have done. Let us pat each other on the 
back.
  And another child dies, and another child is molested, and two girls 
are stolen from their home, found in a canal, their naked and beaten 
bodies found in a canal.
  There are sick people running around our communities. They need to be 
caught. They need to be apprehended. They need to be sentenced to the 
most severe penalty.
  But what would be better is if we apply the laws now, protect the 
children first, and then not have to suffer the consequences. My heart 
goes out to the Montoya family and every other parent who has suffered 
the devastation of the loss of a child.

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