The TSSAA voted to make background checks a requirement for all officials prior to registration in Thursday’s Board of Control meeting.
The TSSAA Board of Control voted unanimously Thursday to require background checks for all officials before being allowed to register with the organization.
“We feel the time has come for us as an organization to require individuals to pass a background check prior to registering as an official,” TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said.
“No one would be able to register with us until we know they have gone through the background check, they have completed all of the steps for registration and their assigners would not get their names until all those steps have been completed.”
Members of the board believe Thursday’s decision was a step in the right direction.
“I think without question, all schools should put the safety of their students as the highest priority,” said Lipscomb Academy athletic Director Mike Roller, who is the private school board representative for Middle Tennessee. “This seems like a step toward that.”
Prompting a move
The issue of background checks came to light in September when former official Kyle Gill was suspended by the TSSAA following an incident with a Glencliff player.
Board of Control voted to implement annual background checks for anyone who registers as an official with TSSAA
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TSSAA (@tssaa) November 12, 2015Following Gill’s comments on the incident, the TSSAA suspended him when it discovered he had not fully disclosed his criminal history when being vetted for the job.
Gill collided with Glencliff senior defensive back Malcom Easley and deemed the hit on him to be “malicious” when asked by a reporter about the collision.
In 2007, Gill, now 36, pleaded no contest to charges of attempted statutory rape and aggravated criminal trespass, according to Rutherford County court records obtained by The Tennessean.
Former football official had arrest history
Gill was sentenced to probation and was ordered to “not take any job with any school system while on probation” in Rutherford County.
Records show that Gill was sentenced to two consecutive 11-month, 29-day terms of probation.
Gill initially had been charged with sexual battery and attempted rape. The records do not specify why those charges were changed.
Following the news of Gill’s past, many were calling for the TSSAA to make mandatory background checks a requirement immediately, but Childress and the TSSAA stood by their decision to wait until the November meeting to vote on the issue with as much information available as possible.
“We knew that we had to do our due diligence in making sure that we got the very best system in place for the number of individuals that we’ve got to do background checks on,” Childress said. “We’re not dealing with 200 people, we’re dealing with 4,500 a year. We wanted to make sure we had something that was not a statewide check, but a nationwide check and something that was easy for us to implement.”
Williamson and Wilson counties initiated their own background checks soon after the TSSAA’s decision to suspend Gill.
Staunch support
Many believe the TSSAA made the right call by waiting and voting in a scheduled Board of Control meeting.
“Sometimes in our society when things happen, we want to react right then, but sometimes it takes longer than what people really want,” Hillwood principal and representative for District 5 Steve Chauncy said. “Overall I think we made the right decision and hopefully we did right by our coaches and student-athletes.”
Roller agreed with Chauncy.
“A lot of times important decisions need to be well thought out and not be made on a knee-jerk basis,” Roller said. “The more thought you can give to an issue, you generally end up with a better solution.”
The TSSAA runs its registration process through ArbiterSports, a standard platform for registering and assigning officials, which will use a system called Peopletrail to perform the background checks.
The checks will cost approximately $10, and that fee will be added to the registration fee, which is paid by the officials.
The TSSAA immediately will start requiring background checks for new officials. Annual screening will be required to remain an active official in Tennessee high school sports.
Once officials register for one sport they are covered for the rest of the school year. So the first officials who will undergo background checks will be those who are registering for spring sports only.
Former TSSAA executive director Ronnie Carter believes this is the first time a member of the board has been elected as private school administrator. The board began in 1925 with the creation of the TSSAA.
Knoxville Webb athletic director David Meske, Jackson Christian athletic director Scott Gatlin and Roller were the three newly elected members of the board from private schools.
Goodpasture principal Lindsey Judd, McCallie principal Kenny Sholl and Harding Academy principal Kevin Starks filled the three private schools spots on the Legislative Council, which will meet on Dec. 9
Other proposals: Highland Rim Academy in Cookeville requested membership with the TSSAA and the Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association. The request was approved, and Highland Rim, a school with 35 students in grades 6-12, will continue with its plan to form cooperative agreements with other member schools in the area.
-Providence Christian Academy in Murfreesboro had its request for TSSAA membership approved for the 2016-2017 school year. The school will participate in Division II in golf, tennis, cross county, basketball, volleyball and boys soccer.
-St. Andrew’s-Sewanee received permission to participate in more than four individual wrestling tournaments due to lack of participants and travel concerns.
The limit for individual wrestling tournaments is four, but the school received permission for more because it is more difficult to schedule head-to-head matches because of a limited number of wrestlers.
Wrestlers at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee are still limited to 55 individual matches during the season.
Reach Sam Brown at 615-259-8232 and on Twitter @SamBrownTN.