November 1, 2022

An employee for a haunted house in Sheffield Lake, Ohio, made a shocking discovery: Her employer had hired several individuals who appeared on the child sex offender registry. After this discovery, she realized the employer had no policy for performing background checks before hiring employees. 

According to the child sex offender registry, two of these employees had previous convictions for misconduct. In one of these cases, the employee had been a habitual sex offender convicted of raping a seven-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy. The other worker’s conviction included unlawful sexual conduct with a 15-year-old. Upon learning this fact, the employee let others know and quit.

The employer reached out to the employee who made these discoveries to apologize. In addition, the employer informed the public about letting go of the two sex offenders due to their convictions. The owner also announced that future applicants would undergo background checks to ensure this incident would not happen again.

Due to this incident, many have questioned whether haunted houses and similar employers perform background checks to ensure potential employees are not on the sex offender registry. Unfortunately, the shocking answer became “no” for many cases.

Furthermore, the local sheriff’s office indicated they were unaware of any law barring sex offenders from working in a haunted house. However, two former employees may still have committed a crime. The sheriff’s office noted that the two men had not reported the haunted house as their employer, which is a criminal offense in Ohio.

Ohio’s law bars registered child sex offenders from employment in childcare agencies and from entering schools. However, in many other cases, the law remains vague. House Bill 459 aims to correct this by amending the existing state law “to prohibit certain sex offenders and child-victim offenders from engaging in a specified employment or volunteer capacity involving direct work with, or supervision or disciplinary power over, minors.”

Though it may not currently be illegal for employers like these to hire employees without a background check, it may place them at considerable risk of civil liability. For example, if a court decides an employer recklessly hired a worker who caused harm to people or property, the employer will become liable. For this reason, as well as to protect employees and the public, it is crucial to perform background checks on all employees.

Background checks are made easy with Pre-employ. Ask any questions you may have and learn more by contacting a sales rep today.

Source