| What about background checks now? | |||||||
| by BUDDY AMATO | |||||||
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I have always been an advocate of background checks for martial arts teachers. I believed in that well before the heightened concerns in recent years about child predators in the school systems and in youth leaques. In fact, I worked with Assemblyman Joe Azzolina and with Senator Joe Palaia on two separate occasions, to try and get mandatory background checks instituted by the state on everyone who teaches martial arts to children. I did this because there now exists an environment where too many young children have been hurt, and have died, because faith was blindly placed in martial arts instructors. I am a former police officer, and I have no problem at all with anyone checking me out. Check all the live-long day, because I haven't committed any offenses. However, speaking as someone who knows the martial arts industry very well, I know there are many karate schools where people who have been in jail or prison are hired to teach. this may sound incredible, but what do you expect out of an industry where there is absolutely no standards put in place by the law. Now, if you are a Little League or Pop Warner coach, you need to have a background check. If you are a lunch aid in a school, or the guy that cleans up, or a teacher or teacher's aid, you need to have a background check. But, why is it so difficult to believe that martial arts instructors should have to get background checks, and pass them? I mean, the person who gives your kid milk in the cafeteria at school has passed a background check, so why shouldn't your child's martial arts teacher have to do that? I'll tell you why, Every single time I tried to get a bill crafted and through the Legislature, a lobby of martial arts schools in New Jersey gets it shot down. they do this because: A: they hire former prison inmates and the like or, B: they are a former prison inmate or former offendent. These people send e-mails to legislators when the bills are announced. They talk about how the martial arts industry should be exempt from governmental scrutiny. Why? If an industry's "free will" is less important than safeguarding children, then what kind of country is this? Well it's the kind of country where dirt bags pick kids off the street, rape them and kill them. It is the kind of country where a heinous offender can die of old age, while he is waiting to die in the electric chair. People have started to believe in the almighty buck more than in the things that count: Our families, our friends, our life. I suggest people to call their legislators and ask why a bill hasn't been introduced about criminal background checks. I also suggest that people demand more of their children's martial arts teachers, and ask them about their past and their qualifications. As a general rule of thumb, there is a lot of talk in martial arts. there are disreputable teachers in the arts that are not as qualified as they represent and, as it stands right now, you can be a murderer just out of jail and open up a karate school and start taking business. Kids will walk into your school with their parents and they will trust what you say. I think it's time to back up that trust with background checks. Does some child actually have to die in order for people to wake up to the fact that there needs to be a minimal criminal screen in this industry? I hope not. I wear many hats in my life, and none of them are more important to me than that of father. My children mean the world to me, and so does every parent's child to them Buddy Amato is a Hazlet business owner, who operates Amato's Karate and Weapons Academy. For more information, call (732) 671-9555.
Copyright Buddy Amato Amato's Goju-ryu Karate, Nunchaku, Bo-staff, Aikido, Sword, Kendo, Sais, Kick-boxing, Tai-Chi and more 589 Palmer Ave, Keansburg and is the author of Buddys Animal Kingdom, NJ 07734 (732) 671-9555 |
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