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People who work in public schools typically undergo a criminal background check. That investigation usually happens once, when a person gets hired.
Eric Thompson believes it should take place more often.
"Times change and people get involved in different issues that may not get reported to the school district in a timely manner," said Thompson, who is running for the District 3 seat on the Bedford County School Board.
He and fellow candidate Jason Johnson, who is running in District 2, want to the criminal history of every school employee monitored on a yearly basis.
"People should know who is coming in and out of their schools and what they're involved in," Thompson said.
Thompson believes it would cost $50,000, or less, to run annual background checks on the school system's 1,000 employees. Some of that cost could be paid by the employees themselves.
Gary Hostutler is already on the school board and isn't sold on the idea.
"At first glance, I really don't see the benefit of doing it," said Hostutler. "I don't think, for the cost, that's how our money could best be spent. I would rather see us invest in programs."
Bedford County just launched a new program, to train staff about sexual misconduct. This happened after four different employees were arrested for crimes against children.
"We have to have something in place that assures our parents that Bedford County is doing everything it can to prevent these incidents from happening," said Thompson.
Hostutler agrees, but doesn't believe an annual background check will catch everything.
"We wouldn't have hired them to start with if they had some abuse in their past, so I don't know that new abuses would necessarily be reported," said Hostutler.
Hostutler told WDBJ7 Tuesday that the school board has never discussed the idea of annual background checks, but added that he is open to the discussion if it comes up.
If Thompson gets elected and his idea passes, he said there's a number of companies that handle background checks for private companies. He believes the school system could contract with one of those companies for a fee, which would allow for regular monitoring and alerts if an employee gets arrested.