Two weeks ago my wife and I attended the open house event at Rancho Pico Jr. High School and had an opportunity to visit and meet with the teachers from each of our daughters’ classes. It was the standard school open house with a meet and greet by the administrators; a chance to meet each teacher and see the syllabus for each class; and the occasion to walk about the campus to get the lay of the land.
The last class we went into was the choral class. This was interesting from the standpoint that we were told that the chorus class would be doing some choir performances at different locations around the Santa Clarita Valley and possibly down in Anaheim. The instructor for this class said that there would be a need for parent volunteers to drive and chaperone.
Sounded reasonable!
Certainly anyone who has volunteered over the years would know that if you’re interested in helping out then you’d just volunteer. It used to be that simple; you’d raise your hand or signup or leave your contact information and you’d be contacted with information on when, where, and what time you would be needed.
But then choir teacher did the unthinkable, she held up a nine (9) page document that all volunteers would need to complete in order to volunteer at the school even with your own child involved. This included fingerprinting which would cost $65.00; a Tuberculosis (TB) test; Medical treatment authorization/ emergency contact information; a Driver Application; copy of CA driver’s license/ID Card; Proof of Auto insurance; a signed copy of the personal vehicle guidelines; and the kicker, you needed a certificate of completion for a Sexual Harassment Training Program. I am completely serious; this clearance process is conforming to current State of California Laws and regulations!!
Shut the front door! Are you kidding me, all of this just to have a parent volunteer for school activities with their child? My God, have we completely fallen off the turnip truck on our collective noggins? It’s supposed to be easy to be a volunteer not a hassle.
Look I get it, showing you have a valid driver’s license and current auto insurance is completely reasonable. Even authorizing the school to have you cleared through a background check with the Sheriff’s department would be completely acceptable. But requiring a payment and the time to get fingerprint scans; take a Sexual Harassment Training Program and get a TB Test, come on, that is just over the top.
Most parents that work would have to take time off from work to make that effort to jump through these hoops and the pool of volunteers has no doubt shrunk because of it. On the top of one form it clearly states that; “If a volunteer applicant arrives for an appointment with incomplete paperwork, the applicant will not be accepted and the applicant will not be fingerprinted.”
This is a microcosm of the over regulation that is slowly suffocating our state and our national economies. There are so many regulations now that it is nearly impossible for some companies and individuals to do business in the State of California. Businesses are leaving the State because of it; some 2,700 businesses have relocated to other states since 2007. California’s unemployment rate is 12% compared to the national average of 9.1%.
I’ll give you one example of this insanity; last year we had a new front door installed in our home. The door was made at a factory in San Diego but had to be shipped a few miles across the border into Mexico to be painted. That meant loading the door onto a truck and driving it over the border to another facility to be painted with house paint!
The environmental regulations have become so restrictive that just painting the door was cost prohibitive for the manufacturer. So that company built a factory in another country and hired workers there while laying off workers here in California. Yet, the transportation of that door via truck was probably worse for the environment then allowing it to be painted in the San Diego factory. Does this make any sense at all?
There are layers upon layers of regulations that are making it ever more difficult to start a business or to continue to do business or as I just witnessed, to volunteer with ones own child on a school outing. It has become ever more difficult to volunteer at all for one’s community or for a charity organization because of the regulatory hoops that keep getting layered on as the years pass.
Instead of passing new regulations and laws, our representatives need to review what’s already on the books and streamline the quagmire of redundant, overlapping and outmoded laws and regulations. Doing so will allow our state and national economies to flourish again. It will also allow for regular citizens, people like you and me, to be free to volunteer, to give back to our communities and to our local schools without the shackles of preposterous overregulation.
Dave Bossert- Commentary
Dave Bossert is a community volunteer who serves on a number of boards and councils. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.
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