A bipartisan bill unanimously passed last week by the House Education Committee would allow a person applying for a teaching license in Colorado to not report a misdemeanor conviction that is seven years or older – with some stipulations.
The intention of the bill is to remove barriers for hopeful teachers who have made mistakes in their past, according to sponsors and reporting by Chalkbeat Colorado.
The bill – House Bill 1090 – would require a person with a misdemeanor charge involving an at-risk person or a child to still disclose it, even if the conviction were seven years or older.
A “child” is designated in the bill as a person younger than 18, and an “at-risk” person is defined under Colorado Revised Statutes Section 18-6.5-102 as someone aged 70 or older or a person over 18 with a physical or intellectual disability.
Under current law, most misdemeanor convictions – with the exception of traffic offenses or infractions – must be disclosed by teacher licensure applicants, regardless of the conviction date.
The bill’s sponsors include Monte Vista Democratic Rep. Matthew Martinez, Penrose Republican Rep. Stephanie Luck and Denver Democratic Sen. Julie Gonzales.
A former Durango School District teacher pleaded guilty in January to three felony counts: coercion and enticement of minors, attempted coercion and enticement of minors, and production of sexually explicit images of children.
Durango School District spokeswoman Karla Sluis told The Durango Herald in January that the former teacher’s background check yielded “no information available at the time of hire that would have indicated or predicted the criminal acts that later occurred.”
If the former teacher – Benjamin Smith, who taught music classes at Escalante Middle School – had any prior misdemeanor charges involving children, he would still have been required to disclose them under the proposed changes in HB 1090, regardless of how dated they were, in order to pursue licensure.
The Durango School District declined to comment about the pending bill.
“As a local school district, we do not take positions on pending state legislation,” Sluis told the Herald in a written statement. “Durango School District conducts its own background checks in accordance with Colorado law, and student safety remains our highest priority in all hiring decisions.”
epond@durangoherald.com
