Tampa Adult Entertainment: At some centers, felons watch the preschoolers

December 13, 2009

Since 1985, the Department of Children and Families has cleared 5,803 people to work with kids despite serious records. Their ranks include former cocaine users, prostitutes, spouse abusers, burglars and, in rare instances, kidnappers and killers.
The practice, currently under review at the state’s highest levels, gives second chances to felons who profess to have turned their lives around.
“This is the Department of Children and Families,” explained agency Secretary George Sheldon, “and I think we need to be consistent with the concept that people can be rehabilitated.”

To be disqualified, applicants had to have been guilty of serious crimes — most commonly, felony drug offenses, felony theft or domestic violence, or of misdemeanors that speak to character, such as prostitution.

Spring Page, 50, had been in and out of jail, including prison time for burglary and grand theft. At age 35, records show, she pleaded no contest to prostitution.

See the full article from “Tampabay.com”



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