Ohio lawmakers should pass a new bill requiring the state to share details about youth offenders with school districts. The bill, which was passed by a House committee 9-1 on Wednesday, concerns the records of juveniles who have spent time in a detention facility.
In contrast to current policy, which allows only the Department of Youth Services to affirm that a youth has served in a detention center, the new bill will allow information including psychological analyses, behavioral records and education plans to be released.
The bill was inspired by the recent stabbing of an elderly couple by a 17-year-old who was on parole after serving four years in a detention center. The boy had fled an Akron high school earlier in the day after being handcuffed and questioned about an assault.
This bill is a step in the right direction toward school efficiency. Allowing educators to be aware of what type of students are in their classroom will let them adapt their classroom and teaching style to better fit their students. The bill also will permit school psychologists to pay special attention to troubled students. With the knowledge of a juvenile offender's past behavioral problems, school psychologists can be better equipped to help them deal with and perhaps overcome their troubles.
With nearly 1,000 released juveniles enrolling in schools annually, the new bill also is an important advancement for school safety. With access to a youth's records, school administrators now can accept a student with a past felony or choose to send them to an alternative program that would better suit the students' needs. The students' privacy also is protected because the school district would be required to keep the students' records confidential.
Program will lose credibility if leader allowed to stay,
In a case of supreme irony, James Billow, the executive director of Licking County's Alcoholism Prevention Program, was arrested after his second drunken-driving incident that resulted in the damage of a state agency vehicle in the past 10 years. Billow, who is currently under investigation for the accidents, should be removed from office and his license to counsel chemically dependent people should be revoked. The state should not treat officials who break the law differently than any other person.
Billow, 58, was arrested on Dec. 27, after crashing a 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer that was registered to the county program. His blood-alcohol level was later recorded as 0.109, well over the 0.08 legal limit. Billows previously was convicted of drunk driving in 1994, when he crashed another vehicle and registered a 0.195 blood-alcohol level.
The chairman of the alcoholism-prevention board has said he wants to give Billows another chance, but if given this chance, the dependability of the program itself will be in question. Billows should have been dealt with after his 1994 drunken-driving incident. He was neither investigated nor demoted - an oversight officials cannot make again.
Allowing Billows to keep his position would compromise the integrity of the program. After two DUI arrests, Billows has lost his credibility. Someone struggling with substance-control problems should not be allowed to counsel others with chemical dependency, nor should he be allowed to have a state-owned vehicle in his possession.
Lawmakers have gone to great lengths to demonize DUI offenders in Ohio, with public relations campaigns, countless education programs and, most recently, by forcing multiple DUI drivers to have special license plates on their cars. Will the agency's or Billows' vehicle be required to carry the new DUI offender license plates?
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