Applicant for jobs near kids to be checked for offenses

Anyone applying for a job at an educational institution or day care center in Shanghai's Changning district will be checked for records of sexual assault, mistreating people under their care or domestic violence, in order to protect minors.

Also, current workers at such institutions will be banned for up to five years if they have been involved in such illegal activities or crimes, the Changning district people's procuratorate said on Tuesday.

All employers in child-related sectors in the district are required to go to the police to check if a job applicant has a criminal record.

Illegal activities and criminal records refer not only to verdicts from courts but also to cases where prosecution was declined by prosecuting agencies, as well as to administrative punishments made by police, the procuratorate said.

The district's practice is expected to serve as a pilot for a potential citywide expansion, which may become part of the Law on the Protection of Minors, said Wu Yan, director of juvenile prosecutions for the Shanghai People's Procuratorate.

Changning district began implementing the practice in July, and 10 people－including eight who had been sentenced for mistreating toddlers at day care centers, one sentenced for molesting minors while working as a home tutor and one sentenced for abuse at an educational institution－were barred from entering these industries for a number of years, the district procuratorate said.

The district has also screened employees at 36 kindergartens, 23 elementary schools, 25 junior middle schools and some private educational institutions during spot checks and found one teacher at an educational institution with a conviction for sexual assault. He was ordered to stay away from schools for five years.

China's Teacher's Law stipulates that people who have been sentenced to jail terms cannot be schoolteachers.

Prosecutors in Shanghai's Minhang district, in Cixi, Zhejiang province, and in Huaian, Jiangsu province, started in 2017 to bar those with criminal records of sexual assault against minors from entering schools, educational institutions and day care centers for as many as five years.

"However, it's not just people with a history of sexual assault who are potential threats to minors. Lawbreakers with a record of mistreating people under their care or those who have committed domestic violence are also potential safety threats, and their chances of committing the crime again is high," said Huang Dongsheng, deputy director of the Changning district procuratorate.

The new policy applies not only to teachers, coaches and caregivers but also to security guards, gatekeepers, drivers and cleaners who will have adequate opportunities to have contact with minors, said You Lina, director of juvenile prosecutions for the district procuratorate.