I was 24-years-old when Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo were arrested for the rape and murder of two young women, and the death of Homolka’s sister, Tammy. It rocked me to my core and I wasn’t yet a mother. Now, I can’t even begin to imagine the hell those parents went through.
Fast forward to 2005 – Karla is released from prison, then marries her lawyer’s brother, and eventually has three kids of her own.
Well, those kids are now older, going to school in Montreal, and guess what? Karla is a volunteer at the school.
You can read the whole story here. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Have you picked your jaw up off the floor yet? Because I haven’t. There aren’t enough WTF emojis in the world to convey the absolute disgust I feel about this.
When I began dog walking, I needed a police background check AND three work-related references from people I had worked with for two years or more. And let me tell you, my references were on the phone for 45 minutes to an hour being grilled about everything from my work ethic to my trustworthiness.
Years before, when I began volunteering at my sons’ elementary school, I also needed a Criminal Background Check (including Vulnerable Sector Screening). However, once it was in place, I was allowed to volunteer the entire time my older son was there. And yet, after the initial check, I was never required to get another one. It bothered me, because in any of those years I could have committed a crime and nobody would be the wiser. It wasn’t until my younger son was in Grade 6 that I was asked to fill out an Annual Offence Declaration form stating I hadn’t been convicted under the Criminal Code of Canada since my last check. By that time, that initial background check was 11 years old.
Well, the Greaves Adventist Academy has decided it doesn’t have to do any of that. In fact, I’m going to take an educated guess, and say they didn’t do a background check AT ALL seeing as something like being a SERIAL KILLER probably would have been flagged.
But, you know, it’s okay because “She is not a regular volunteer, and can never be alone with any children, either in school or churches,” Seventh-day Adventist Church spokesman Stan Jensen told CityNews.”
Let me make this abundantly clear. Karla Homolka should never be around kids in any capacity, ever. I can’t even wrap my mind around this. What head-up-his-(or her)-ass official thought this was okay?
If I were a parent at that school, I would make it my full-time job to protest the shit out of this (or alternatively, convince every parent to pull their kids from school until she was no longer allowed to be a volunteer).
In the meantime, you might want to take a moment to find out what the volunteer criteria is at your children’s school.
Editor's Note: since the publishing of this article, Karla Homolka was barred from volunteering at the school.
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