Dani Wexler | Curbing the volunteer spirit

During freshman year, I decided to audition for CityStep, an organization under the Civic House umbrella that provides an extra-curricular dance program for several elementary schools in the West Philadelphia area.

Imagine my surprise when I found out halfway into my service at the Harrity school that because of a piece of legislation passed in the spring of 2007, the school district would be requiring all volunteers to undergo criminal background checks and fingerprint testing by the FBI. The process could cost up to $70 for each volunteer.

Legislators crafted the bill to filter out criminals from positions providing service to children by allowing organizations that facilitate these services to require criminal background checks. Because the law hadn't been strictly enforced since its passing, the school district issued a warning to its schools last December. Because Harrity was already concerned with its students' academic performance, they took the warning seriously.

As a result of the logistical issues posed by the background checks on the Harrity volunteers, we lost at least two months of time to dance with our kids, which ultimately caused our final piece to be shorter and less rehearsed. Even worse, we weren't able to connect with the kids as intimately as we could have.

The clincher, however, was when another Penn volunteer organization, West Philadelphia Tutoring Project, discontinued their services at Harrity for the semester. WPTP is now charging their volunteers a $10 fee upon joining the project.

WPTP chairwoman Samantha Zuckerman describes the Project's struggle with this issue by saying that "while the background checks may be inconvenient for the WPTP and our tutors, it is important to follow the school district of Philadelphia's policies as they are put in place to protect the students we work with."

Vice President of the Office of Government and Community Affairs Jeffrey Cooper oversees the University's effort to deal with the setbacks caused by the legislation.

He told me that "we are in the process of assessing the applicability of this legislation to the various ways in which Penn Students are involved with Philadelphia schools and will be discussing the interpretation of the legislation with the School District."

Some students I spoke with thought the University should cover the costs of the background checks. But the qualm I have is with the creation of the legislation in the first place and how the law proves more of a detriment to volunteers than a safeguard for children.

Presumably, the law was written in response to acts of child molestation and abuse in cases where criminals gained close access to children. While those are valid concerns, they should only encourage parents and community leaders to play a more active role in children's lives to ensure their continued safety.

But when overwhelming fear translates into unjust pressure on volunteers and potentially deters them from continuing their service, this fear becomes a handicap.

Volunteers are naturally generous. They're people who understand the importance of focusing outward and derive pleasure from making others happy.

But volunteers are people too, and people need reinforcement. They relish the 'thank you's' and smiles they receive when they do a good deed.

On our last day at Harrity, we were touched by the kindness of the students and teachers who prepared a goodbye party for us replete with music, games and cake with "Thank you CityStep" written in vanilla frosting.

Let's be honest - a mound of paperwork and a hefty bill are no reward; it's what we like to call in college vernacular, a huge buzz kill.

Dani Wexler is a College sophomore from Los Angeles. Her e-mail is wexler@dailypennsylvanian.com. Wex Appeal appears every Friday.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.