Volunteer Screening?

[BerserkerSpyke]

Originally posted by Brm789
I think I've posted about this somewhere else but I'll say it again just so it gets somewhere. At what age do you stop being a student and become an adult? I hate to say this but...well...some students are rather old. In Delaware, especially in the public system, it isn't uncommon to have a senior graduate at 19. He is still a student yet an adult, by atleast a year, at the same time. Should he too then be required to have a background check done? And what about these kids you see on news programs who are 14-16 raped, beating, sexual molest, and/or just being cruel to other kids? What if one of those kids ended up on a team? I know there are applications and you have to show you want to be there for our team but still...you can't catch everything. I think what FIRST is doing is smart and safe, and I am all for it but I just question at how effective it is going to be. How do you know you don't have an 18 yr old senior with track record that would make you shudder? And....should you be checking your students too? Where does the line begin and end. I worry far too much for my age but you have to understand, someone has too...don't they?

And then there are teams made completely of college students (Team 190 of WPI for example). Are these students considered "adults" by FIRST?
Plus, how can FIRST expect people to give up the privacy of their past, maybe their acidents or just stupid mistakes, to volunteer to help a group of kids? Many people have secrets in their pasts that haunt them or they may have even redeemed for. Does a simple organization, a structured group activity, have the right to reveal the past of people just because they are above a certain age?