As a parent, it is hard to send your child off to school for the first time. They have been by your side for so long, it may be hard to part with them because you know it is the first steps of growing up. Some of you may feel it is really easy to send your kids off to school but I deep down somewhere inside of you, you feel some kind of discomfort letting go of your child’s hand on the first day of school.

So should you worry about whose care your putting your child into? Who is watching them now that you are not around? You might have met the teacher but how much do you know about them? And what about other teachers or employees of the school that may come in contact with your child? Who are they exactly?

One question you should ask is “Does my child’s school do background checks?” Not just on teachers but cafeteria workers, custodians and maintenance men. And if they don’t, why not? If the school does not know the history of its employees, how can you stay at home and feel comfortable knowing your child is with a stranger?

As a mother, father, or guardian, married, single, or divorced, it should not matter. You are trusting someone with the care of your child, physically and mentally. If the school doesn’t run background checks, the parent should. You may not run into anyone bad with a background check and that is the best news you can have. But it is important to make sure. It’s easy to do. A few simple clicks and a couple minutes of time and the information you need to put your mind at peace is in front of you. Click here and make sure you child is in good hands.

The most common scenario is where the imposter will give the victim’s identity to an officer-of-the-law say during a traffic citation, or misdemeanor arrest, often in the form of a phony or stolen ID, or “borrow” the victim’s name an alias, then skip town, failing to pay the fine or make his required court appearance. In some cases, DUIs and felonies were committed in the victim’s name. Nearly always, the imposter is known to the victim, usually a friend or relative. Often, the two will be close in age and physical appearance, good reason to be careful how you choose your friends.

You might be out driving on road one night, then find yourself being tailed then pulled over by a cop “Woooop!!! wooooop!!!” then getting arrested for outstanding warrants, booked at the county jail, strip searched, fingerprinted, and maybe spent the weekend in the slammer. When go before the judge, you’re told you’re free to go, all charges dropped because it turns out you’re not the person they were looking for.

Unfortunately, the criminal justice system does not yet have a decent contingency plan in place to clear an innocent person’s name. The burdon of clearing one’s name lies mostly with the accused, sometimes with steep attorney’s fees.

Procedures to clear your name from criminal databases varies according to state, or even individual counties. Some states already have special procedures in place for victims of criminal identity theft. Ask your state Attorney General’s office.

If wrongful criminal offenses are linked to your name, first contact the original arresting police/sheriff’s department who originally arrested the impostor, or else the court who issued the arrest warrant and file an impersonation report with them, and confirm your identity. Ask the police department to take your fingerprints, photograph you, and make official copies of your photo IDs, I.e.: driver’s license, passport, etc.. To claim your innocence, ask the police to compare your fingerprints and photos with the imposter’s.

Maintain a detailed log of all your phone conversions, paperwork, email messages, contacts, etc.. Keep a detailed record of all your expenses incurred. When writing the authorities you should always use certified mail with return receipt. Email is generally not considered secure for sending confidential private information, so it’s not recommended if you can avoid it. The rule is never send out something via email that would not want to share with the public. Changing your social security number is rarely recommended as that usually causes more problems than it solves.

If the arrest warrant is from another state or county, ask your local police dept. to forward your impersonation report to the agency of the jurisdiction where the arrest warrant, traffic citation, or criminal conviction originated.

The police/sheriff’s dept should recall any arrest warrants and issue you a clearance letter or certificate of release in the event you were arrested and booked. It’s essential to keep this document with you at all times in case you might be falsely arrested again. Have official copies made at the courthouse, in case it gets lost. Ask the agency to file the record of the follow-up investigation establishing your innocence at the D.A’s office and/or the court in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred. This will result in an amended complaint. Unfortunately once your name ends up in a criminal database, it’s difficult to get it completely removed. Ask that the key name or primary name be changed from yours to the imposter’s name, or else to “John Doe” if the imposter’s true identity is unknown, with your name noted as an alias.

You will also want to clear your name within the court records. Determine which state law(s) will help you with this and how. If your state has no formal procedure for clearing your record, contact the D.A.’s office in the county where the case was originally prosecuted. Ask the D.A.’s office for the appropriate court records needed to clear your name. Unfortunately in some situations, you may have no choice but to hire an attorney to help you clear your good name. You may want to ask your state DMV if your driver’s license was used by the imposter. Ask them to flag your files for possible fraud.

Your best defense is to pick your friends carefully and safeguard your drivers license, other licenses, passport and of course any other personal information that would be attractive to an identity thief.

Question: I have been looking for computer programming work for over the past year, but nobody’s hiring. At first I blamed in on “the Bush recession,” age discrimination, and outsourcing to India, but now I think it’s my wife’s felony conviction that’s could be the problem. I have an impressive resume and and NO criminal record, although my wife has one. So what’s the problem?

What’s the nature of your wife’s conviction?

“Mailing foot powder (fake anthrax powder) to the local water dept., (a 2nd degree Felony in the State of Florida). John Ellis “FIB” Bush put this G**damn law in place. She’s now a convicted ‘terrorist.’”

Answer: That can most definitely be your problem right there. Unfortunately, in the software engineering / programming field, employers are requiring security clearances and so are not just running security checks, and criminal background checks on you, the job seeker, but on your wife as well. Private companies in the software computer programming field today are very concerned about security because of growing concern about “cyber terrorism” and identify theft. Much of the work of programmers and software engineers intails working with encryption technology, and security.

Answer: That’s pretty bad. There’s 2 strikes against you already. We’re not just talking about a felony conviction here, but one that’s terrorist-related on top of that. Not good! You may want to look into self-employment as an option.