Hello, gentle readers. Forgive the long absence -- your faithful correspondent has been on vacation in Oregon, as well as celebrating her 27th birthday yesterday. More on those two events later. Today's blog topic will deal with. . . .
fingerprints.
Those of you who work in normal jobs probably don't think about fingerprints very often, unless you have lengthy police histories that I don't know about. However, every time you take a new job in the ed biz, it's another round of fingerprints for you. Since I am now teaching at Caņada College for the first time, it is time for another round of ink smudges.
It should be noted that every job I have ever had, as well as several volunteer positions, has required me to be fingerprinted. The City of Palo Alto has my fingerprints. Stanford University has them as well. The City of East Palo, I believe, also has my fingerprints. Santa Clara Unified School District has my fingerprints. DeAzna Community College has my fingerprints.
"Easy," you think. "All of these places are within a 20-minute drive of each other. They can just send your fingerprints to your new job."
O naive reader. How I pity your ignorance.
Fine. So, new job, new county, new set of fingerprints. I call the County Office of Education to set up an appointment -- they are open 1:30 -5:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays. (After all, there are no new teachers being hired in late August, so why work?). They call back. They inform me that they have several available appointments in the next two days, but that I am not allowed to make an appointment. I, foolishly, ask why.
"Because those are the rules."
Fine. I call the business office at the college, and ask them to schedule an appointment. They agree, but tell me I should stop by their office first to pick up a request form.
"No need. I already have one," I reply.
Awkward silence.
Stiffly, barely disguising disgust: "May I ask where you GOT this request form?"
"From my dean's office. Why? Is that a problem?"
"They're not supposed to give it to you. We are."
"Why?"
"Because those are the rules."
Fine. So business office schmo calls back with an appointment for next week so that I can prove for the sixth time in five years that I am definitely NOT a child molester (I hesitate to put that phrase in the blog for fear of the search queries it will generate, but what the hell).
The sad part?
I don't have fingerprints. My hands are so badly scarred from years of eczema that only two fingers have any discernible swirls. And, as always, I will be asked to re-fingerprint at least once more. Why?
Because those are the rules.
Posted by Meredith at August 21, 2002 01:44 PMWelcome back
Sorry about your lack of discernible swirls.
I once had to get fingerprinted because my store was robbed (my being robbed at gunpoint and being held hostage is a story for another time) and they needed to exclude my fingerprints from the robbers.
Alas they didn't catch them, but I got a story out of the situation for your blog.
While I never had to get fingerprinted for a job, I did once have to take a lie detector test to get a job. (p.s. I got the job)
Why? Because those were the rules.(Giving lie detector tests for employment in New York State is now illegal.)
Aloha AL
Posted by: al on August 21, 2002 05:05 PMEvery day I talk to / hear from Al, I learn something new about him. It occasionally strikes me as odd that I often learn these new things by reading his comments in this blog, but I've learned to just roll with it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike on August 21, 2002 10:45 PMIt is finished. They have taken my fingerprints, and I do not know where they have laid them. I warned the woman that they would probably be rejected, and she told me that, in that case, I would come back to the County Office one more time. If they still got rejected, then I would be sent to the Sheriff's Office, where, according to this women, "the state is required by law to accept people's fingerprints, no matter what."
Also, while I was there, I read the following handwritten sign on the wall, "Remember to follow certain procedures when processing teachers for the Adult School. We've been having quite a few problems." The handwriting is on the wall: I have been weighed in the balance, and found wanting.
Posted by: Meredith on August 29, 2002 11:18 PM